Hugo Kusnet's documentary "Pilar" presents a brief yet detailed view of the historical but largely forgotten city of Pilar, in the state of Goiás. It was an important economical
city back in the 18th Century thanks to the presence of many gold mines there, so many Portuguese and Brazilian authorities moved there for a period that lasted than 100 years. The
film presents the constructions of the city like churches and a sort of court/prison of the period, it's all intact and greatly preserved even though it doesn't carry that special
weight of being a museum neither we see some historian or a representative of the place to talk about the place; it's all heard through the narration of veteran actor Hugo Carvana.
I liked seeing this film since I love seeing historical places and hearing stories about the period, rise and fall. Kusnet makes a great presentation of elements, places and
some brief history, and it was great to see something historical outside of the Southeast/South axis of the nation where the majority of important and historical locations are
presented. The places shown here are located at the center of Brazil, more than 200 years before the inauguration of the nation's capital Brasília in 1960, 20th century. Towards the conclusion we get to see the then current population of Pilar, a city that was practically abandoned when the gold dried up from the land and agriculture was the only source of income to the population and the slaves who stayed behind.
The version
I've seen there's an amazing remaster of images, the cinematography looks terrific, but the sound was pitiful and terribly bad to such a level that neither with headphones I could
hear things - the volume from the itself was way low and if I had to watch it on TV then I'd have to turn to the highest volume (but c'mon, the earphones were right here yet the sound
was like a small buzz coming from a huge distance). Anyway, outside of this faulty technical aspect the film was informative and great to look at it. 6/10.