Lost Zweig Page #4

---

Brazil is an open country...

made up of all races and creeds,

including Jews...

who live in harmony

with each other.

But we are also trying

to build a new country...

and it is very important how we

are seen by the rest of the world.

That Orson Welles character,

for example.

The Americans think

we are ignorant and stupid.

And they send that...

that communist to film our slums...

to film the worst aspects

of carnival...

a bunch of n*ggers jumping up

and down like the Devil himself!

Forgive me, but...

is this president Roosevelt's

good neighbor policy?

To blacken the name

of our government...

telling Americans that Brazil

is the Eldorado of poverty...

lust and decadence?

Mr. Pontes,

I understand your concern...

but, really, I cannot abide...

simply cannot write to order.

Are you afraid of losing your

readership in the US, Herr Zweig?

But, of course, take your time.

I'm simply a middleman,

a messenger of the President's will.

Mr. Pontes...

I thought we were meeting

to discuss the visas...

your government promised.

Oh yes,

for your Jewish friends in Germany.

Herr Zweig...

forgive me, but these are

troubling times for us all.

The world is at war.

The President promised

almost two months ago.

They may not survive

for much longer!

Just one more thing,

Herr Zweig, about this book.

Santos Dumont's death.

Perhaps you should omit...

that one unholy matter.

To put it in a nutshell, Herr Zweig:

no one, in Vargas's Brazil

kills himself.

Like all geniuses of his kind...

my eulogy may cause

this talented Austrian...

of noble lineage

some embarrassment.

But I need not tell you

what an honor it is...

to have this rare opportunity...

to hear the man who "reinvented"

our country with his book...

"Brazil:
Land of the Future".

Stefan Zweig...

is an example of the unyielding,

unbendable intellectual.

This man is an example of

resistance and moral coherence...

when many others prefer

to conform or abandon ship.

This man is a true champion.

Please let's welcome

Herr Stefan Zweig!

Please, girls. Please. Hurry up.

Hurry, hurry! Quickly.

Thank you. You can put it here.

There. Thank you.

In these times...

we live through

facts excessively quickly...

and we live through

too many facts...

to remember them properly.

I am unable to identify...

the "I" of my passport...

with that of the writer

in permanent exile.

A man without a country,

ironically, is a free man.

Our country has been taken

by your pal Vargas!

He's right!

Put yourself in our place!

Some of you...

question my devotion to freedom.

Well, I've always spoken

publicly against oppression...

against the violence

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes