""In October 1 975, in a military prison... the journalist Vladimir Herzog (Vlado) is killed." "His death causes intense reaction from society... and it's the beginning of the end of a dictatorship of 1 1 years." "Therefore, Vlado became a symbol of the democratic fight."" "JOÃO BATlSTA DE ANDRADE - MOVlEMAKER" "This is a movie I should've done a long time ago... a movie about the journalist Vladimir Herzog... who was killed in a military prison 30 years ago... on the unforgettable day of October 25th, 1 975." "Vlado, as he was called by family and friends, was a good friend of mine... and his death was a huge shock to me." "I was someone who would register everything with my camera... but I was so upset with his death that I didn't register anything." "I have always had the feeling... that there was something missing in my movie career." "And that's something I try to make right now, with this movie... which is dedicated to my friend's memory... and where I'm going to talk about those leaded years." "I'll use this chair for the interviews, a director's chair... which I'll lend to those who, with their personal testimony... and their experiences living in the harsh years of military regime... will help me remember those days... of the arrest and the death of Vlado." "This will certainly be a movie with very few images." "Obviously, we'll show precious images of Vlado, Clarice... of the ecumenical ceremony that was a landmark in those days... and was an indicator of the beginning of the end of dictatorship." "Such ceremony took place here, at Sé's Cathedral." "But we have no images of the torturers, images of fear... images of the repression systems." "We do have images of our loved ones... we have the faces of those we lost, of those who were persecuted... tortured and killed." "Vlado was born in 1937, in the city of Osijek, Yugoslavia." "During World War II, at 7 years-old, he had to flee with his family... and search for refuge in Northern Italy to escape from the Nazi." "Despite being so young he was forced to learn Italian quickly... so that he could talk to the fascist soldiers... while his father pretended he was dumb... in order not to reveal the fact that he was a foreigner." "After the war, his family leaves Europe... and seeks refuge in the 3rd World, having Brazil as their destiny." "I studied with him for 7 years in the same classroom." "Because we lived close to each other we would often go to school together." "Vlado has always been a kid... with a fragile health." "And he didn't enjoy eating." "But his mother insisted, and every once in a while she would tell me..." "She'd put a fruit in his lunch pack and say to me:." ""Ruy, encourage Vlado to eat."" "At lunch, he was reluctant to eat, but he ended up eating something." "Since day one, he had always had an extraordinary sensitivity... towards the arts and the drama, in the first place... and also towards the movies and music." "He used to run away from politics." "Didn't even want to hear about it." "Even then, he was already... a very serious and quiet boy." "He didn't like jokes very much." "But he always carried a book with him." "I remember that, because of Vlado, I started reading Dostoievski." "Vlado was a sweet, funny, humorous man." "He looked shy at first, but he was extremely sociable." "He promoted gatherings all the time, and he was a good writer." "Besides being a journalist, he wrote and he received many letters." "We had news about Brazil through Vlado's letters... because he would write to dozens of friends." "I don't remember much." "I remember... that we'd go to llhabela to catch crabs at Praia do Viana." "We'd go to Praia do Viana." "I remember the ranch in Bragança, our going out fishing at night." "I remember when he bought a telescope at Fotóptica." "He was friends with Thomas Farkas, and they negotiated for hours." "But he bought it and then one night he woke us up to see Saturn rings." "I've been to TV Cultura many times... and he's always treated me with respect, so..." "I felt for him the respect and the friendship... we feel for people who are polite... who know how to please people." "He was a great writer... a great editor, his ideas were very clear... and he knew exactly what a good newscast was." "Vlado was unbreakable, decent, honest... a man who was concerned about ethics... and as a man intimately connected with the arts, with culture... he was especially concerned with freedom." "We were good friends." "Including Clarice, his wife, a wonderful woman." "And what I remember about his death was my sadness." "He became a symbol, eventually... of the resistance of the Brazilian journalists." "He would've been a movie maker, considering his passion for movies... he would've worked for TV networks, he would've been a writer... or he would've remained a journalist, I don't know... but the memories I have of Vladimir Herzog are wonderful." ""VLADO:." "thirty YEARS AFTER"" "A film BY JOÃO BATlSTA DE ANDRADE" "What do you know about Vladimir Herzog?" "You don't?" "I don't know." "I don't think so." "He was a journalist killed by the military regime." "I don't know." "I know nothing." "A journalist who was killed by the military dictatorship." "If I'm not wrong, he died... in prison, and they staged his death." "Apparently, it was murder, but they said he killed himself." "I don't know." "I wasn't even born back then." "I think he was a journalist arrested during repressive times... simply because he didn't agree with our regime, but I don't know more." "I don't know anything." "Nothing?" "I don't know, sir." "I don't know him, to be honest with you." "I've heard about him." "I don't know." "I don't know him." "What do you know about Vladimir Herzog?" "I don't know him." "And what do you know about the dictatorship times?" "Very little." "It's before my time." "I don't know, but I think it should come back to that." "With an informal poll like this one... we realize how little the Brazilian people know about Vlado... and the military regime." "They know practically nothing." "But such historical period keeps its flames burning... especially after people see..." "humiliation AFTER MURDER pictures on the papers..." "VLADO'S SECOND DEATH wrongly attributed to a naked Vlado... detained in a military prison." "Society intensively reacted..." "HERZOG'S widow contradicts version and some uncommon reaction came... from the military, who started..." "GOVERNMENT claim PHOTOS ARE FALSE, EXPERT CONTESTS." "defending the 1 964 military coup... and the methods used by..." "HERZOG CASE:" "LULA DEMANDS AND THE ARMY RECANTS the military during the dictatorship." "In 1 963, Vlado was still torn between Journalism and movie-making." "In Rio de Janeiro... he takes a course with Arn Sucksdörf, a Swedish moviemaker." "Consequently, he makes one of the first direct sound documentaries... entitled "Marimbás", about fishermen at the Guanabara Bay." "We have what we call "arrastão", which is dragging the fishing net... taking it out of the water." "This is what I do, all day long." "You pull the net out, correct?" "wedding DAY" "In February 1 964, Vlado marries Clarice... a girl he met at Philosophy College of the University of São Paulo." "Their wedding was taped by a cameraman of TV Excelsior." "On the tape, we can see many friends... and some will be participating in this film, like Fernando Jordão..." "Fátima, and also the Argentine moviemaker Fernando Birri... whose proposition of a movie's movement... defending critical and poetic documentaries has influenced us." ""TlRÉ, DlÉ" BY FERNANDO BlRRl" "We founded what would later become the Documentary School of Santa Fé... which was originally called Cinematography Institute... for the National University of the Coast." "Some time later at the school... we saw two young men arrive... with a small suitcase in their hands." "I opened the door... and they kindly and naively asked:" ""Sir, is this where they teach Cinematography?"" ""Well, we try to."" ""We come from Brazil." "I wonder if we could..."" "I told them to come in, and we started to talk... so I could try and understand how we could help them... and what we could say to them." "Those young men were Vladimir Herzog and Maurice Capovilla... two young wishful Brazilian moviemakers... two beautiful human beings." "Vlado was very small, very thin... and he showed signs of a sharp intelligence." "LONDON coming AND going" "Less than 2 months after the wedding, there was the military coup." "Discouraged by the perspective of a long military dictatorship..." "Vlado and Clarice, along with Fernando Jordão and Fátima... decide to leave Brazil... and take a Television course at the London BBC... and they later come back during one of the worst times Brazil had... more specifically in 1 968... when the Institutional Act number 5 was put in place... deepening the roots of the military dictatorship in Brazil." "We spent a good year together enjoying England." "London is wonderful, you have time in your hands... to get to know things." "Vlado had running through his veins... that passion for travelling." "He had friends everywhere he'd go." "It was fun travelling with him." "He always nurtured his friendships." "There was no computer, lnternet, so he would write to them... never losing touch with his friends." "Anywhere we'd go to, we could find friends of his... and we could see the city through the eyes of those friends." "For a whole year, that was really nice." "Then, after some time, on the second year, I guess... we got the homesick itch, you know?" "We started to feel like coming home." "So Vlado changed his focus from the movies to television." "He felt he had to do that because... you are able to reach society better in television." "The movie world is very closed, very elitist." "But his return was..." "His return was traumatic." "He took a television course there... under request of Televisão Educativa, with the promise of..." "Scholarships were only given if the person had a job in his pocket... and if what the person learns will be used in a public network." "He came back, and they didn't give him the job." "And he hadn't done anything yet." "You were in trouble just by... not thinking accordingly to the regime, you were a communist." "You either shared their view or you were a dangerous communist." "In a way, it was very extreme." "He came back in a terrible moment." "He came back in a terrible moment." "Actually, he was supposed to arrive on December 1 5th." "The lA-5 was in place on the 1 3th." "ln 1 968." "Right." "He was supposed to take off on Saturday and arrive on Sunday." "But Vlado never arrived... because he had gone off to Rome to see Birri... and say goodbye to him... and on Saturday afternoon he decided to go to the movies." "Then, he reads "Military Dictatorship in Brazil"." "He froze." "He didn't know what to do... if he came back or not." "So he stayed for another week." "The lnstitutional Act number 5." "That's right." "He stayed for another week... wondering if he should go back to BBC, but that would be hard too... because he had no more connection with them." ""Do I go back to London?" "Do I go to Brazil?"" "So he decided to come to Brazil." "Clarice Herzog, my dear friend and colleague... when they came back from England, she started working with research... and Rodolfo Azi, a comrade, was her boss." "Rodolfo was also tortured in prison." "He's dead now." "She told him she wanted to do something, of course." "After the institutional Act, she felt she had to do her part." "So he made Clarice contact me." "I helped Clara Sharf." "I didn't know who she was." "At my house, she set up meetings..." "Sometimes, I would set up meetings with Marighela at her house." "She was married to Vlado, and they had two boys." "I had never met Vlado." "I didn't know Marighela." "I tried not to get too involved... because I knew I wasn't strong enough for that." "They'd get to my house, and he was a wonderful person." "She found out much later." "But on the day I met Vlado..." "I went upstairs to have her talk to Marighela." "That was the idea." "I didn't see any problem." "I said: "You can go upstairs to meet Clarice, and she'll meet you."" "That's when they talked..." "And Vlado was there?" "Vlado was with her." "Vlado and Marighela's meeting was an accident." "They looked and greeted each other, but they never talked about politics." "During Amnesty times, I helped organizing an art show at..." "What's that place again?" "Clubinho." "An old friend of mine said to me:" ""There's someone here I'd like you to meet." It was Clara." "We kissed, we cried our eyes out... because our men were dead in such important historical times." "So I asked her: "Who was that man?" "You don't know?" "Marighela."" "That's when I found out." "Incredible, isn't it?" "MARlGHELA, A guerrilla MAN in THE military regime, died in 1 969" "In 1970, living the worst of a dictatorship regime..." "Brazilians show the world what they do best... and our soccer team wins the World Cup." "In this footage that Jorge Bodanzky and I did... we see the celebrations in São Paulo... charged with tension." "The military government tries to take over our soccer team feat... by staging some fake patriotism scene... showing President Médici wrapped around our national flag." ""VlSÃO" magazine" "Outside newscast, Vlado becomes cultural editor for "Visão" magazine." ""Visão" had practically become an island... of independence and critical vision towards the reality in Brazil." "The magazine put together the elite of Brazilian Journalism... including Vlado." "Many journalists of its team would later be persecuted... by the military regime and arrested, including Vlado." "I left "Jornal da Tarde", my most important job... to work with Vlado at "Visão"... that had been purchased by Henri Macksoud... and Vlado had been working there for a while with a team of..." "Nowadays, it would be very hard to put such a great team together:" "Rodolfo Konder, Paulo Francis..." "Leandro Konder, Zuenir Ventura, Vlado..." "Ricardo Sete, Evaldo Dantas Ferreira, Carlinhos Brickman..." "Rolf Kuntz..." "I mean, it was a team of aces... a Journalistic dream team." "I got transferred to the newsroom of "Visão"... as recommended by Miguel Urbano Rodrigues... and I talked to the director, Antônio Pimenta... and I started working." "It was a relatively small newsroom... however full of qualified professionals... and Vlado was responsible for our culture segment." "We became friends very soon, we would talk a lot... because we worked in the same room." "That was the first weekly publication... with some structured content." "Before "Visão" changed hands... since all the other publications were biased... and they supported the political and economical plan of the military... and thought Delfim was a saint..." ""Visão", a biweekly publication, with little outage... had a lot of room to address political, cultural... national and international issues." "That was great." "Before working for "Visão"..." "I was already a fan of their work, a fan of what they were doing." "I remember a great article Vlado and Zuenir Ventura worked on... called "Brazil's Cultural Gap"... talking about the consequences... of the military dictatorship, of censorship and repression... on Brazil's cultural production." "Not until 1 972 Fernando and Vlado manage to create... the newscast "Hora da Notícia", that is essential for the understanding... of the whole picture." "Fernando was the manager, Vlado was the editor... and I was what they called "special reporter"... and did short documentaries that they included in the daily news." "STORY BY The themes for my documentaries... were social issues, living condition... hunger, transportation..." "In other words, the reality in Brazil as the regime had never... enjoyed being exposed." "When I created a newscast department at TV Cultura... once again I called Vlado to come work with me... because I knew he was professional... that he was able to collaborate in an excellent fashion... with the type of work I intended to do... not only when it came to... the practical execution of things, as a journalist... but also as a political mind." "Not that we wished to make a militant newscast program... a biased program." "It was not that at all." "It was just a model." "That's where public television was made... because, although it was a government network... we were able to maintain, thanks to Jordão, Vlado, you... and the whole team we had... some kind of an island where the government could not meddle." "It was a sympathetic group and, at the same time... it was a group who went after the news." "It was a newscast mainly concerned with popular issues... and the viewer might hear "popular" and think... we are talking about Gugu and Ratinho." "No, those were popular issues because... poor people in Brazil were going through them." ""Hora da Notícia", as it was conceived, lasted until 1 974... less than 2 years after it was created." "Subject to constant complaints and threats, the newscast falls... due to intervention of a journalist who, according to documents... agreed to help Brazil's military Intelligence institutions." "We all got fired, and some of us went to jail." "The complaint was said to come from the 2nd Military Base, an entity... 2nd Military." "But the person who complained to me... was TV Cultura's cultural director... to whom we answered... and that was Nídia Lícia." "She would summon me every morning and complain that... our newscast was very pessimistic." "She used the term "black"." ""When we turn the TV at night... on all the other networks..." "Brazil is a happy nation." "Only here, in TV Cultura, it is a sad nation."" "I picked up the phone and he said:" ""I'd suggest that you do not run... the story about meningitis."" ""But we have to run it, Secretary, so the population is aware of it."" ""No, you are going to scare the population."" "I said: "I'm still going to run it."" ""Don't do that, or you're going to regret it."" "An hour later, the governor Laudo Natel phones me." "I was in shock. "You can't run it because it will scare people!"" "Bottom line: we ran the story." "That same night..." "OBAN officers, I mean, officers from Operação Bandeirante... came into my apartment, handcuffed me, put a hood over my head... and they said: "Let's throw him in the bushes." "No one will know."" "You were at their mercy, handcuffed, blindfolded, you know... and they'd take you to Tutóia Street." "When we got there, a guy said:" ""I'm not even going to interview him." He pulled out his gun... put it against my forehead and "pow"!" "He shot?" "He shot right here... but there was no bullets, only I didn't know that." "I don't have to tell you what that did to me." "A SLOW, GRADUAL AND SAFE political opening" "But it got more complicated." "In 1 974... the presidency changed its generals." "Replacing the feared Emílio Garrastazu Médici... now we had an elite general... the Prussian Ernesto Geisel... counselled by the intellectual mentor Golbery do Couto e Silva." "That same year, Geisel loses the election." "The 74 Elections were won by the opposition." "Geisel, who had been trying to start a political opening... tries to control the speed and depth of such opening... creating the term "a slow, gradual and safe opening."" "Geisel then indicated a half-liberal man to be the governor of São Paulo:." "Paulo Egídio Martins." "Paulo Egídio then indicates a true liberal to be Secretary of Culture:." "the businessman José Mindlin." "Well, when Paulo Egídio came to see me and invite me... to control the Department of Culture, Science... and Technology he had created..." "I hesitated for two reasons." "Mainly, because I would have... to be part of an administration... of an indicated governor rather than an elected one." "He told me:" ""Listen, you can be sure... that we are getting ready for the opening." "It will come."" "After losing his job, Vlado returns to the movie business." "He goes to Canudos and start working on a script for me to shoot." "SCENES OF "DORAMUNDO" Later, he starts to write the script for my "Doramundo"... which was filmed after his death, and won the Gramado Award in 78." "There's a criminal here, Dr. Ramos." "We have to find out who he is and erase that kind from Earth... and protect our city from those thieves." "I assure you we won't be long." "Every criminal eventually confesses, Ramos." "returning TO TV CULTURA" "So they gave me résumés from different candidates... and Vlado's was the best by far... with all his experience at BBC... and other exceptional references." "So, before I talked to him..." "I had to ask... if snl's director agreed with my decision." "I talked to him over the phone... he said he needed half an hour to check Vlado's history... and later he told me it was no problem... that Vlado had been... a communist when he was younger... but that was over now, and I had permission to hire him." "Then, I checked if Paulo Egídio... agreed to that and I invited Vlado for a talk." "That's when we met." "That's when the Journalism department of TV Cultura... became a target all because of a coincidence." "Days after Vlado took over as Journalism director... as far as I know, without his consent... they ran a story... a documentary about the Vietnam War." "The pressures on TV Cultura started in May or June, right?" "They pressured Herzog, the team that worked at TV Cultura... and that pressure was more specific." "There was this journalist... who I think is still alive, by the name of Cláudio Marques... who worked... there and he was intellectually committed to people... inside the Security departments, and he signed a column... on the "Shopping News" of São Paulo... which later was bought by dcl." "His column was actually written by people in the security department." "He started to criticize Herzog..." "TV Cultura, Mindlin..." ""They should spend some time at the DOl-CODl hotel." "I heard it makes wonders." He wrote things like that." "On the 4th, there was a gun fire." "4th or 5th." "Soon after, they published... on the column of Cláudio Marques the following:" ""Communists have taken over TV Cultura"..." "VlETCONG ON TV CULTURA "TV Viet-Cultura"... due to a story originally run by the London BBC... which today could be shown in any Brazilian network." "Of course there was no problem with it... but it looked like a provocation in those days." "The story was about Ho Chi Min, and the funniest thing... is that the press saw that as a sign that the rebels... had taken over TV Cultura." "From then on, they started to think that the network had become... a haven for subversion, because of all the people who worked there." "Now, think about it: you think Vlado had not been investigated... and approved by snl before he took the job... as director of Journalism in a government network?" "Of course he had." "But that was not enough." "Because we see the union of two obvious processes." "On one side, the repression of the illegal Communist Party... which Vlado and other people participated in... and, on the other side, the huge pressure on TV Cultura." "Looking back now, we clearly see that it was all part... of a game for power involving President Geisel, Sílvio Frota..." "Paulo Egídio and every military sector in our regime... which was starting to be transformed, but... somehow, suffered with internal struggles." "We were the clams pressed between the rocks and the ocean." "That process lasted from early September till the day Vlado died." "brazilian communist PARTY" "This is where they established, during the military regime... one of the most feared centres for political repression, the DOI-CODI... with connection to the 2nd Military base." "As a triage, investigative, torturing... and murdering centre, hundreds of Brazilians were brought here... and many of them were killed or went missing, including Vlado." "But Vlado's arrest is the most dramatic moment... of a process that had started at least a year before." "Since they had no guerrillas to repress... the military regime turns its rage against and old party... that once had refused to use force." "So PCB, although it had never... used force during those times of democratic resistance... suffered all the consequences, from the point of view of repression... as it had used force." "PCB, or at least important people from its board of directors... were literally slaughtered... murdered at cold blood, after going through torture." "The party was fought against as if it were... a much stronger and influential organization... than it actually was." "It created among those in the repressive system, in São Paulo... at Tutóia Street, in the DOl-CODl... a certain paranoia about a secret super-organization... manipulated by PCB, and MCl... with the goal of taking down the military regime in Brazil." "We felt that the reaction was closing its circle... and that we had to protect the directors of the party... by sending many of our board members overseas." "That's what happened to Prestes." "In January 1 973, the Central Committee held a meeting... and they decided that Prestes had to be sent overseas." "That's how he was protected from the horrible repression... that fell upon us." "Little by little, we started realizing... that a group of board members of the Communist Party... started being arrested whenever they had the chance to do it." "Their arrests were secret." "They were not like in the case of Marighela, for example." "When Marighela was arrested, the newscasts immediately announced it... that Marighela had gone to prison." "Well then... that did not happen with the board members of the party." "1 2 communist board members, extremely important men... with a history of struggle and noble services done... for the country, like Orlando Bonfim Júnior... a great lawyer from Belo Horizonte..." "Aloísio M. Filho, a Congressman from Rio Grande do Norte..." "Jaime Miranda, a Congressman from Alagoas..." "Davi Capistrano, a Congressman from Pernambuco... and member of the lnternational Brigade... who fought against the fascists during the Civil War..." "Walter Ribeiro... a former Military officer who had been expelled from the Armed Forces." "So many of our comrades... had been caught, and they went missing." "ARRESTS" "Trying to destroy Geisel and Golbery... the conservative military start hunting down the journalists." "They had to show Brazil was being undermined by the communists... with the help from the federal government." "Many people had been arrested:" "Serjão and Anthony..." "Duque, Markun, Konder... and... at about 4 p.m., I was working at my desk." "Editora Três was at 1 500, Paulista Avenue... on the 1 5th floor." "Luís Carta, Luigi, our late and dear Luís Carta... an inflammable Italian... who was one of my bosses, he came over to my desk... with the blood running from his face, and he said:" ""Get your things and go down the stairs." "Do not take the elevator... because there's an undercover Major and a Captain... talking to Domingos." "He's going to try to stall them." "He offered some coffee." "They're here for you."" "From the moment old comrades of mine... from the Students Movement, from old battles... such as Sérgio Gomes and others had been arrested..." "I knew it was just a matter of time." "And I thought I was theoretically ready for it." "But I could have never imagined that my wife Diléa would go to jail too." "She's the mother of our daughter, who was 6 months-old at the time." "I could have never imagine that, nor that my arrest... could result in Vlado's arrest and murder." "Actually, I wasn't arrested." "I think I was kidnapped, like everybody else... and that's different." "They came to my office and... weren't even able to tell my boss I was being arrested." ""No, he's just coming with us."" "They didn't let him come along... and they never said where they were taking me to." "Right outside my office, there was one or more, I don't know... vans where they put the hood over your head... and took you to a place you didn't know." "Through radio, they started asking where they should take me... and the voice said I should be taken to the "Surgery Room"." "I left work on a Friday... two days before Diléa's birthday... to buy her my gift, which was going to be a bike." "I took the bike home and started putting it together in the garage... in a two-story house in Southern São Paulo... when the DOl-CODl van arrived... and we all knew what that van looked like." "Nobody wanted to see it, but we all knew it was a Veraneio... with a hot license plate, carrying 3 or 4 guys in civilian clothes... who very often were very polite in their ways, and they were with me." "They said: "Are you Paulo Sérgio Markun?" "Yes, I am."" ""We are from the 2nd." "Base." "We would like you to come with us."" "Carmen was with a friend of ours upstairs." "I called her, she came down, and I said:" ""These gentlemen here are taking me under arrest."" ""No, that's not it." "You're just going to be interrogated."" "They rang the bell, I opened the door and saw two big guys." "To me, they looked much bigger than they probably were." "I excused myself and changed because I was in my pajamas." "They let me change." "I changed and we all left." "They did not handcuff me." "The three of us left." "The doorman found all that very strange." "Then, we got into a truck... and, in that truck, one of them said: "Now, sir... would you please let me put a hood over your head... because we have orders no one should know where they're being taken."" "He put a black hood over my head, still maintaining his politeness." "Later, I was going to miss all the nice things they did." "I sat on the back seat of their C-14." "They arrived on a C-14." "It was dark blue, almost black." "I got in, I sat down, and we all started talking normally." "When we got to Tomaz Carvalhal Street... down Paulista Avenue... around the exit to 23 de Maio Avenue... they told me to put a hood over my head." "We walked to the next street... and got in a cab... but soon we were surrounded under one of the bridges... behind the church, and out of a car... came men carrying machine guns, saying they were the Death Squad." "They got us out of the cab, shoved each one of us in a car... and then took us to the MP base... the Military Police base in Rio de Janeiro... where their barbarian behaviour started." "Some guys were yelling, saying it was Saint Bartholomew's night... and I got really scared." "And then they started..." "Where was that?" "On the halls of the DOl-CODl." "There was yelling, there was a mess." "They were doing that to intimidate us, you know?" "They took me to the DOl-CODl." "When we got there... they made me strip and put on a military jumper that had no belt." "That's important to say because of all that charade... they invented saying Vlado had killed himself." "Nobody kept their belts." "A military Dumper, then they checked your shoes for shoelaces." "They would take those away too." "Then they made me... take my fingerprints for my sheet, take pictures... and then they took me to a room that was full of people." "Duque Estrada was with me in that room." "And there we sat, on a wooden bench... with the black hood over our heads... until the moment of interrogation." "The first thing you felt was stress caused by noise." "Non-stop, someone rang a bell, slammed a door... so you did not calm yourself down." "At the moment of the arrest, of the arrival at the DOl-CODl... and even on the first 24, 30 hours... the only thing I could feel and hear... were people screaming, crying... sounds of people being beaten up... but, more than anything, a lot of screaming." "I had a hood on my head, handcuffs on..." "DOl-CODl was about that hood." "The materialization of it was the hood." "Why?" "With that hood, you'd go and come back from torture sessions... you'd go and come back from interrogation sessions... you were released or used to find a comrade... and tell them where he lived." "All those things were unnecessary... but their purpose was to humiliate people." "The smell of that hood was once described as "the smell of fear"." "It was a black hood, made out of cheap fabric... that was put over our heads on the most critical moments." "TORTURE" "First, they started talking to you in a harsh way... but I had the impression I could still... argue with them." "We started arguing, and I said... we were journalists and intellectuals who enjoyed discussing... the future of Brazil... but we had no subversive intention." "That's when this guy got pissed and said: "Are you trying to... waste my time, you fucking communist, son of a bitch?"" "He hit me and said:" ""I'll teach you a lesson."" "And I was still wearing the hood, you know?" "It's strange enough to argue with someone without seeing the person." "But I was still trying." "He walked by me, he opened the door and yelled: "Marshall... send the team in with 'the pepper"'!" "I found it strange and started wondering what "the pepper" could be." "I have to say that I did not feel good wondering what it could be." "At first, you're scared and terrified of being tortured." "You still don't know what they're going to do with you... so you are more scared of what may come... than of what you're already going through." "Then... our body starts to scream because of your suffering." "How were you tortured?" "In my case, I basically got beaten up and shocked... on the Dragon's Chair." ""The pepper" wasn't what I thought it was." "It was something else, but it wasn't better." "They called the shock machine "the pepper"." "Then, two guys came, yelling at me, and I was sitting on the stool... with the hood over my head." "They hit me, beat me up... then they installed the machine... and made me connect the wires to my wrists and ankles." "Then, they started to shock me." "One of them, with an exposed wire... sent discharges on my neck, my ears, my back, you know?" "When they took my wife to the room next-door... and they started shocking her, I just said:" ""I'll do anything if you promise you'll stop doing that."" "Then, during the whole torture session, ended up saying... that it was a mistake, that I was Catholic, as I still am." "They started shocking her." "I didn't know she was wearing sneakers... therefore the shocks weren't so heavy." "Then, they stripped me down, and they shocked me all over... on my penis, etc... for an hour or two, I'm not sure." "Let's say that was how much I could take." "They stopped everything." "I had a moment of..." "It was as if I was possessed by the Holy Spirit, because I said..." "I lifted the hood, because they tortured you with the hood on." "I took the hood off..." "looked right in the eyes of my torturer and said:" ""You don't believe in God, and you probably don't have a family... because you're doing all these things... to a recent mother." I had had my baby not too long ago." "On my second interrogation session... they asked me about Vlado, so they knew Vlado's name already." "I said Vlado had also been a member of the Party, as other people... and I gave them names of many journalists who were arrested later." "There was this room where... they had a Dragon Chair." "I'm sure you've talked about it." "It was like a throne, with a metal lid." "They tied your arms and legs down... and you were totally immobilized." "The common thing was tying a wire... to your ear and another to your dick... and then shock you with a dynamo." "In the case of the team of people who killed Vlado... they had a special technique:" "while they were shocking you... people were yelling at you, beating you up, punching you... and one of them made a tourniquet with the hood down here... and poured ammonia on your forehead." "The ammonia damped the whole fabric... of the hood, which was made of a thick fabric... so the ammonia really penetrated." "As you are getting shocked... the ammonia works in such a way that, if you breathe out... you are not able to breathe in, and if you breathe in... you're not able to breathe out, so... the machine makes your breathing rhythm totally unstable." "At that moment, you're really scared." "I had never been shocked nor tortured." "The truth is they hit you... they torture you to break your spirit, you see?" "The main goal there... is to bend your soul, put you on your knees, you know?" "They were not interested in what I had to say... because I was not speaking, I was just screaming." "But they wanted to break my spirit." "And I have to tell you they were capable of that." "I don't know, I mean... you are physically destroyed." "There's a moment where you actually feel your body coming apart." "When they shock you in the ear, the mouth, the anus, you... you feel as if you're falling to pieces, you know?" "And that feeling stays with you for the rest of your life... that feeling of you falling to pieces." "When they break your dignity, when they leave you at... a threshold of total lack of conscience... or of limits you might impose... over your own body, your own mind... your own senses... you are no longer a human being." "There are moments where other people's suffering... overcomes your own suffering." "When you see a friend, a comrade, being tortured right there... you..." "In my case, it was my wife." "It stays with you forever." "In fact, the torture sessions were used as a system... just like the Nazis did." "It was used here in Brazil... and that was not the first time." "The New State had used it before." "Torture was the system that hold the dictatorship together." "If you did a research, you'd find out that each group... maybe a group of students they considered subversive... a musical band, an armed organization, the Party..." "PCdoB, or whoever, all those groups had a leader killed." "The pictures on this book are still terrifying." "This book is a dossier with the dead and the missing people... and here we see pictures that make us feel ashamed of ourselves." "Still today, they make us cry." "VLADO'S ARREST" "I was home, and two guys looking like cops arrived." "They asked me something stupid... they said they wanted Vlado to take pictures of a wedding." "I said he was not a photographer, he didn't do free-lance." ""Where is he?"" ""At work, at TV Educativa." They asked for the address." ""l don't know the address." "I know how to get there, though."" ""Don't worry, we'll find it." They left, I called Vlado." "He was going in the studio to put the news on the air." "It was the last newscast he put on the air." "I said: "They're going over there." "They don't know the address." "I'll get the kids and go."" "I got the kids up, and we all went there." "I thought I'd get there first, but they beat me there." "At TV Cultura, journalists negotiated with the cops, avoiding his arrest." "Vlado accepts to go over to the 2nd Base the next day... and that a reporter from the military, as a guarantee... sleeps in his house that night and goes with him the morning after." "On the morning of October 25th, 1 975, a Saturday..." "Vlado says goodbye to Clarice and his two sons, Ivo and André... and leaves in the car of the reporter who had slept over." "He was keeping his promise of showing up at free will... in an attempt to preserve his anti-clandestine way... of acting and thinking." "His final destination, as the final destination of many of his friends... who had worked with him at "Visão"... was the strange building on Tomaz Carvalhal Street..." "DOI-CODI." "After a certain time, I was sitting next to Duque... and we had talked to each other." "Very carefully, we would lift up... the tip of the hood... and we could see people sitting down... we could see their legs and feet." "When new people arrived, we noticed it." "Vlado arrived... and since I had known him for years and worked with him... in the same room together, we had shopped for shoes together..." "I immediately knew it was him." "I looked to the side, and Rodolfo was on my left." "I said:" ""Rodolfo, Vlado just arrived."" "We were able to see, with that movement of lifting our heads up... and pushing the hood back, we were able to notice... who was arriving, and if you knew them." "So, Vlado came in." "That's when I told Rodolfo." "After some time, the same guard came to get us..." "Duque Estrada and me." "So we left, guided by him... and went into the room next-door to the one we were in... on the ground floor, and Vlado was there." "I said: "Vlado, it's all out in the open." "They know, all right?"" "Then, he said to me:" ""Duque, I have nothing to do with that." "You always came to me to talk about the movies... because we both like it."" "Then, Vlado reacted: "l don't know what you're talking about." "I have never been a communist, and I don't know what you're saying."" "VLADO'S DEATH" "Because he was in the room next-door... we heard him screaming." "He started being beaten up." "His first screams were like of someone who's being punched all over... but then his screams changed, and they became... typical screams of someone who's being shocked." "When you're shocked, your screams come from your guts." "They don't come from your throat." "Then, they put something in his mouth, maybe a cloth... but he kept on screaming... until someone came out of that room... and turned the radio in the hall, and in the radio they were saying... that Generalíssimo Franco... was dying and had received his extreme unction in Madrid." "Then, his screams... went on for a while, and then there was silence." "Birds were singing outside, but inside the DOl-CODl, mortal silence." "All the bell-ringing, the door-slamming had stopped... and a reverential silence was made." "Some time went by, and they moved us all out of the room... and they took us upstairs, supposedly to identify pictures." "No one identified any picture." "In fact, it was a way of getting us out of the room... because the body of Vlado had to be carried through there." "That room was an entrance and an exit." "He was dead, but we did not know it." "I talked to Clarice..." "She talked to me and I said: "Don't worry." "He showed up on his own." "I was arrested a year ago, and I'm still here." "Calm down."" "So, I went fishing, I went fishing... in a dam around here." "I wasn't worried, you know?" "I was absolutely sure nothing was going to happen." "When I came back, my brother said Vlado had been killed. "What?"" "One of the hardest things for me was telling Zora, his mother." "When I told her, she said:" ""They're going to kill him!"" "An uncle of mine had been killed, so she thought the same would happen." ""No, they stopped torturing people." I tried to calm her down." "Hours later, I had to tell her he was dead." "It was really hard." "It was probably half an hour after Clarice knew." "She was alone at home." "We called her... asking if she wanted to come over and have dinner with us." ""No, I'd rather stay here... because the boys are too excited." "They're in bed already." "So I'm here reading, in peace."" "Half an hour later, we heard." "When I heard, I went straight over to Clarice's... and some men were just leaving her house." "Later they told me... they were directors from TV Cultura who had gone to tell her officially." "It was a terrible day." "A terrible day." "In the evening, they started calling me to ask... about some director from the network." ""l don't know who he is, I never did."" "Then, I started to think something was going on." "When the network people arrived, I started screaming, saying that..." "Vlado had been murdered." "I was certain of that." "I never doubted it once." "This is all the material we have from DEOPS." "Right." "How many cards in this file?" "We have a little more than 1 million cards." "Really?" "So society was highly watched by DEOPS." "Highly watched." "And what do you have about Vladimir Herzog?" "There's a lot of stuff, many cards with information about him... about how the police investigated before and after his death." "Where is that material?" "It's all around here." "Can I see it?" "I can show you something." "Vlado was dead, and he had been brutally assaulted by his torturer." "He had refused to write a confession with the names of his friends." "I can almost see him at that moment, in his cell, weak and hurt... demanding the guards to dictate him a confession... because he could not write something that betrayed his conscience." "They dictate a police-like text... with words like "to entice", which Vlado would've never used." "Then, they tell him the names." "When he's done writing, in a final gesture of anger... he tears the paper and drops the pieces beside his school-chair." "The tattooed strong arm of his torturer... falls on his head in a wild and lethal blow." "The dirty job was done, intentionally or not." "Now, they had to do something." "Killing him was not enough." "They had to get rid of the responsibility for his death... humiliate their victim by faking a suicide." "The next day, the commander called us, the journalists... to say that Vlado had committed suicide... and that he was a KGB agent." "Then Markun protested, and a guy started hitting him." ""You know nothing!" "We also know... that the Brazilian government is infiltrated with KGB agents!"" "That talk he was having with us... had the intention of showing us that, first of all... the Communist Party was not directed by the people we thought... such as Luís Carlos Prestes and others... but by unsuspicious people like a general... a cardinal and a governor." "They said that." "Second, that the Brazilian Communist Party... that was knowingly reformist, as they said... that preached legal fighting... worked in the democratic government, it was for the use of force... and they had proof." "And third, Vlado was a KGB agent... and that's why he had committed suicide." "Then, the guy said:" ""You have to understand... that whoever comes here gets spanked!" "We don't care if it is the President!" "They're here, they get it!"" "There was something involving Geisel and Sílvio Frota, and Ednardo... the 2nd Base commander, could not control that... and the process of political opening was bothering him." "We started seeing that conflict more clearly later." "That's when I started to understand it was a fight... between two elephants." "As the Indians used to say:" ""When two elephants are fighting... the grass takes the blunt." We were the grass." "They stomped us." "I arrived in New York Saturday... and on Sunday morning I was in Texas when I heard... about Vlado's death." "It was a terrible shock." "On Sunday afternoon, I called Golbery... and they said: "He's arriving now." He didn't know about it... because he had isolated himself at Granja do Torto." "So I said: "General..." "I tried to talk to you on Saturday night... because Vlado Herzog had been arrested... and now he's dead."" "He started to scream over the phone:" ""They killed him!"" "I mean, he knew exactly what that meant... and how Vlado's death was part of a big picture of fight for power... which was already installed." "I called the governor saying..." "I was coming back to Brazil... and that I had to talk to him right away." "But I just got a flight for Tuesday, I arrived on Wednesday... and I went to him with my letter of resignation." "And he told me:" ""You're off the hook because... that's what we agreed upon." "But, if you leave, you'll weaken... the chain of resistance... against the radical wing of the military... commanding the repression." "They took Vlado to get to you... and they'd take you to get to me...", Paulo Egídio said:" ""...and they'd take me to get to the President."" "THE CEREMONY" "I was at ltaici, in a bishop conference... and I presided it... so they called me there about wanting to have... a religious ceremony, if possible... something in joint-work... with the Jewish community... and if I agreed that they did it at the Cathedral." "The hours before the ecumenical ceremony... that took place on October 31 st... were of total suspense... total..." "It's hard to find the words." "Of total tension... of not being able to feel the ground beneath your feet." "I was threatened." "Two generals from the administration came here... to try and convince that I didn't belong in the Cathedral." "They said:" ""lf you do it, everybody who gets killed..." "We'll send 500 cops to Sé... and if they hear something as little as a scream... or any other manifestation, they are ordered to shoot... to shoot and kill!"" "And that moment, which had to be... conducted with every... measure to avoid a reaction... from that sector... conspiring against the possibility... of minimum opening of the regime." "Dom Paulo and I, the night before... we had a meeting and we decided that the ecumenical ceremony... was our way of publicly showing our repulse... our public manifestation of disgust against the lies... the military government was telling." "There we were, the Cardinal, reverend Jaime Wright and me." "They say there were 8,000 people there... inside and outside the Cathedral." "When I entered the Cathedral... and I saw there was no room left for a match, and all those people crying... for someone who had been... so dear to the city, so beloved to the city... when I saw that..." "I was filled with hope towards the Brazilian people." "You can't say it was a direct protest, a direct challenge... but a silent protest, much deeper and stronger." "That moves people." "That moves people... because it has nothing to do with one religion... but different religions... different spirits that come together." "CLASSES HAVE BEEN SUSPENDED" "DUE TO THE tragic DEATH OF VLADO" ""Prepare a table in the presence of my enemies." "Bathe my head with oil." "My cup overflows."" "A moment of silence... so we can create mood for praying... mood for solidarity... among men." "Among men and God." "For Vladimir Herzog... being Jewish meant... being Brazilian." ""l went through the valleys..."" "Melt my sins, Lord." "In the name of the man God... we ask for peace... we wish peace." "Peace, which is a need for man... we ask, in the name of man's conscience." "In this moment of pain for all of us... not only for journalists, but for all our brothers... and for all the faiths that are here today." "I would like to make an appeal, a last homage... in this moment of pain for all of us... to our dead brother, to the dead man... to the dead man God... to the God inside all men... silence." "Let's get out of here... of this temple where we got together... all faiths." "Let's leave in silence." "Let's leave... and wait for the path to peace." "In the Herzog case, the reaction, fortunately... was so intense... that it allowed us, soon after that..." "Of course there could never be compensation for these things... they cannot neutralize the brutality of a murder... but, in a way, it created a counter-weight... an immediate recognition of all this..." "For 30 years, Herzog has been a myth not only to journalists." "It was actually such a violent act that it shook the country... and strengthened... the idea of opening... which took some time to happen, but... in my opinion, was a decisive factor... to the path of political opening." "I believe that doesn't make us feel better... but Vlado did not die in vain." "At the time of Vlado's death, I felt a massive rage." "I was moved by rage, by hate, by injustice... when I saw the world going on with their lives, around Paulista Ave... and I thought:" ""How can they go on with their lives... how can that be so normal?" I felt a lot of hate for that... because he could not participate in that opening process." "He had so much he could give." "So many ideals, so many dreams, so much competence, all that lost." "He was a sweet person, a competent journalist... he was into the movies, the theatre, the television... he was a person... who positively supported... the exposition of ideas, not their hiding." "And the coward way he..." "Right." "That's what... shocked us, because you realize that... the brutality they used with him was beyond... any experience they had had so far... just for the fact he was that person and for what he represented." "The afternoon" "Fell like a broken bridge" "And a hobo dressed in black" "Reminded me of Chaplin" "The moon" "As if a landlady of a brothel" "Asked every cold star" "To lend her some twilight" "And clouds" "All over the sky" "Were sucking up tortured blots" "What a mess" "Crazy" "The hobo, with his hat" "Bowed a thousand times" "To the evening of Brazil My Brazil" "It dreams" "With the return of Henfil's brother" "With so many people who have left" "In the trail of a rocket" "Our mother land Such a sweet mother is crying" "Marias and Clarices cry" "On the Brazil ground" "But I know" "But I know" "That such a devastating pain" "Cannot be" "Cannot be in vain" "Hope" "Is dancing" "On the suspended wire With an umbrella" "And every step of the way" "She can get hurt" "Too bad" "Hope, that juggler" "She knows that Every artist show" "Has to go on" ""lmportant facts that were not included in this film:" "1 975" " Rabbi Henry Sobel decides to bury Vladimir Herzog... outside the suicidal wing of Butantã's Israeli Cemetery... following the Jewish tradition." "1 976" " On January 6th... journalists led by São Paulo's Union... sign a document demanding an investigation of Vlado's death." "1 976" " Manoel Fiel Filho is murdered in a DOl-CODl cell." "As a result, the 2nd base command is taken down (SP)." "1 978" " The movie "Doramundo", originally written by Vladimir Herzog... wins Gramado Festival." "Director João Batista de Andrade dedicates the movie... to his friend killed on military prison." "1 978" " Judge Márcio de Moraes rules in favor of the Herzogs... and holds the country accountable for Vlado's death." "The suit, started by Marco Antonio Barbosa... and Samuel McDowell Figueiredo, becomes a historical landmark... in the history of the Brazilian Legal System."" "CAPTIONS BY VIDEOLAR"