Bertoit Brecht has stated that characters exist according to what they say and also by what they do not say. Fabiano, the main character portrayed in Nelson Pereira dos Santos' film version of Vidas Secas, based upon the literary work of Graciano Ramos, is a piercing example of this proposition. Even though he possesses all the emotions of a typical human being - love, hate, and hope - Fabiano's inability to communicate with other people makes him an ubiquitous object of humiliation and scorn. The difficulty of verbal self expression faced by the film's protagonist is the key element to the drama in the story.
Communication is more than mere speech. According to Aurélio Buarque's Portuguese language dictionary, communication is the act of exchanging information and sharing a common awareness. In these terms Fabiano's communication problem transcends speech: when his sons try to get close to him, Fabiano mistreats them; when he does not know how to respond to the soldier, Fabiano is beaten; when he is humiliated by his boss, Fabiano stands speechlessly with his hat under his arm and tries to apologize. At all times and in all circumstances Fabiano is unable to initiate or to respond to any form of communication. He is, to all effects, a spectator, feeling and observing, seeing the world go by, wanting to participate, but without knowing how. Disparaging of himself and acknowledging his intellectual limitations, Fabiano feels a deep admiration for those who can express themselves effectively.
In the film dialog has less meaning than the character's facial expressions and movements, in which explicit suffering is always laid bare. In Vidas Secas, Nelson Pereira de Santos is able to touch the spectator, thanks to a fine blend of figures, scenery and events. The death of the parrot - mute and therefore unnatural - to feed the family is one of the most crucial moments of the film. It is a reflection of Fabiano, a man who is also dumb and useless. In the same manner, the death of the bitch Baleia, the family dog shot by Fabiano, is a reaffirmation of the vicious cycle of misery, injustice and lack of communication. The microcosmic world of Fabiano's family is no different from the rest of society in the wastelands.
Santos' cinematographic vision of life in the badlands is harsh and realist to the extreme, and therefore faithful to Graciano Ramos' original work. The world of Vidas Secas is fatalist and human. The movie does not have a moral nor a message. None-theless, the existence of poverty, hunger, and suffering portrayed in the movie is in itself a clear message. The lives of the characters are dry, completely devoid of those characteristics that bring happiness: health, love, prosperity, career, future, etc. None of these elements are part of the lives of Fabiano and his family. Fabiano is like a wild animal, not only because of the absence of any oral communication, but also because of his inability to decide or react to change his own destiny. The most offensive thing to the spectator is not Fabiano's misery, but his unmitigated passivity to the degradation that endlessly torments him.
The scenery, depicting the arid land of northeastern Brazil, is an important element of the film's emotional impact. Fabiano and his family, as they journey without any more definite goal other than their own survival, are punished equally by the cruel land, an oppressive society and their own apathy. Another cinematographic artifact used in the film is symbolic contrast, as portrayed in the scene in which Fabiano haltingly attempts to communicate with boss, as the man's daughter takes violin lessons. It is a dramatic protest emphasizing the severe differences within the social system in northeastern Brazil.
This lack of ability to express himself to others did not mean, however, that Fabiano was incapable of understanding what was said to him or about him. Aware of the insults and feeling hurt, Fabiano repeatedly attempts to express himself. Despite all his efforts to speak, the results of his tentative oral expression are not distinct and under- standable words, but only a sequence of discordant guttural sounds. This, along with the alienation imposed by his peers, contributes to the fact that Fabiano feels closer to animals, to which he can talk, than to other men. Certainly the director's use of grotesque and deformed sounds rather than speech to transmit his message is far more efficient than an improbable and unrealistic eloquent dissertation by a film character. By using a high degree of abstraction and symbolism in Vidas Secas, Nelson Pereira proved that the guttural sounds made by Fabiano speak louder than sophisticated dialogues found in many other works attempting to address the same social and economic ills in the badlands of northeastern Brazil.
Graciano Ramos (1892-1953) was a leading author in the Romance Style of the Modernist School in Brazil. His work accentuated the suffering of the common people in the barren regions of Northeast Brazil. Vidas Secas (Dry Lives), written in 1938, is considered his most important work.