Stories

LAURA | ESMERALDA | TELMA | ANA | MARTILEIDE

 

MARTILEIDE
|Curitiba|

FICTION


Scene 1: Curitiba – ext/day

Aerial view of the city. We take in the commercial centre, some upper-class neighbourhoods and other landmarks, until we reach the poorer outskirts.


Scene 2: Curitiba/ Martileide’s house – int/morning

The bathroom. In close-up, steam swirls around Martileide’s legs as she pulls on some thick woollen socks and then, a pair of short plastic boots. The little that can be seen in this countrified environment is the toilet bowl


Scene 3: Curitiba/Vila Jardim – ext/morning

RITA, 30, in a neighbourhood of wooden houses, prepared to face a cold day in her overcoat, woollen pants, plastic boots and socks, gloves and woollen cap, is leaving home. She turns the key and makes sure that the door is firmly locked. She walks down the street and stops outside Martileide’s house, also a small, rustic, wooden house. She knocks on the window that gives on to the street.


Through MARTILEIDE, we follow the life of a girl who, despite being of European descent, might be considered a true, low-income Brazilian, just like thousands of other young people who live on the outskirts of a large city and work downtown as a sales-girl, waitress or shop-assistant. At 25, MARTILEIDE HOFFMAN works in a fast-food chain in downtown Curitiba, yet she is by no means resigned to her life-style. She is strong-willed and rather temperamental. She cannot keep a boyfriend for very long and this has given her the unwarranted reputation of being a “push-over”, the kind who is good for a one-night stand, but not for marriage.

The only pleasure left in MARTILEIDE’s life is listening to her favourite radio station, hosted by a man with a powerful and attractive voice called VALDOMIRO ARTUR who broadcasts messages of love and hope. It is at such moments that she even believes that she can give a boost to her life and is filled with good feelings and might actually meet the great love of her life. As time goes by, she realises that she has fallen in love with the voice on her favourite program. From platonic love to obsession, MARTILEIDE pours all her hope for a better life into a voice, which bewilders her best friend, RITA.



MARTILEIDE does not know VALDOMIRO ARTUR personally and decides to write him several letters under the pen-name “A Roze Without a Garden” in which she pours out her heart. One day, she is taken aback in the snack-bar by a voice that sounds very familiar. It asks for a coffee. With her back to the voice, while she fills a cup from the coffee-machine, she nudges RITA, quite beside herself.


They both turn almost at the same time to face the owner of the voice, sitting on a stool at the counter. It is a dwarf! MARTILEIDE, almost in a state of shock, passes him the sugar. She stands stock-still staring at him. MARTILEIDE is so bewildered that she goes out into the street, still wearing her uniform. She hails a cab. From that day on, MARTILEIDE has never been the same. She disappeared from the neighbourhood without a trace. RITA only heard from her a long time later. MARTILEIDE had become a prostitute at the Paradizo Night Club and had changed her name to ROZA. RITA is curious to know if MARTILEIDE heard VALDOMIRO’s program on the night that they met. It was entirely dedicated to the “Roza without a Garden”, one of her favourite songs playing in the background.

 

DOCUMENTARY

Waitresses that work in the centre of Curitiba talk of their dreams and desires