Presentation
“I DIDN'T KNOW TURURU'”, is my first film as director and a long held dream come true. The film is an anthropological comedy shot entirely in Cearà (north east Brazil); a Cearà that is modern, in constant evolution and reflects daily middle class life with its conflicts, mysteries, disillusionment and romance. In a memory laden atmosphere, a family has been reunited for the marriage of one of the four sisters. However much it may be based on personal experience it is not an autobiographical film. It reflects the multiple aspects of the female world involving situations that are both contrasting and personal.
The film revolves around the arrival of the two sisters who live abroad, meeting up with friends, the discovery of different types of relationships as well as the impact of personalities feeling the repercussions of urban violence in all its diversity.
Some parts of the film were shot in other regions of Cearà – those which most differ from one another - for example the coast, the mountains and the Capital Fortaleza captured in all their splendour.
Having been an actress in over 50 films, I hope, with this story, to have realised a film that is entertaining, light hearted, lively and full of surprises. It is a film about women and love. A film which will no doubt find its niche among countless others, a contribution towards the reconstruction of Brazilian Cinema.

Florinda Bolkan

Motive
"I DIDN'T KNOW TURURU'": is the first film in which Florinda Bolkan, international actress who has starred in over 50 films, has had the role of director and screen writer. The film was produced by Jandaira Produçoes Artisticas under the executive production of Assunção Hernandes, cinema producer of over twenty feature films that have won many national and international awards. The film was shot in the June and August of 1998 in the state of Cearà (north east Brazil) with a highly professional cast and film crew. The director of photography was Felix Monti, also director of photography of films like An Official Story (winner of the Oscar award for best foreign film) and "El Viaje" (winner of best photography at Cannes festival). Among the cast are important names such as Maria Zilda Bethlem, Suzana Gonçalves, Herson Capri and Florinda Bolkan. The editing of the film was completed in the second half of 2000. Like all of Assunção Hernandes’ films, its quality is guaranteed by the use of the highest available technology. Post production took place in Canada and the United States.

Characters
The sisters:

ELEONORA, 50, tall brown-haired, writer who lives in Italy, rational, mysterious, recently separated from a famous publisher after about twenty years of marriage. She has no children

ROSE, 4°, fair hair and skin, a painter, she lives in a small studio flat in Fortaleza. Extravagant, ex hippie but very considerate. She isn’t married, the lover of GIL. (She has never married, GIL has always been her greatest love since she was a teenager, he is married to another).

CARMEN, 37, chestnut-coloured hair, divorced, she lives with her mother. Egocentric, self-sufficient, someone who always knows better. She is about to get married to JOSE RAIMUNDO, 21. It is her fourth marriage and she has no children.

ISABEL, 35, chestnut-coloured hair, she lives in the United States, married to a statesman. A contradictory personality alternating between tenderness and truculence. She drinks a lot. She has tried to have children for years but without success.

The mother:
LETICIA, 70, widower, housewife, authoritative and affectionate. Fair skin and brown eyes. Shows signs of arteriosclerosis.

People who were a part of the household:
PRUDENCIA, 60. Donna LETIZIA’S niece, asexual, she apparently has no other interest than that of the house, to which she is totally dedicated.

JUSTINA, 15, coloured. The daughter of the cook, lively and affectionate.

The guests:
SELVAGGIA, 20, Italian, daughter of Eleonora’s ex husband. She lives in Italy, is slightly punk, she wears tight leather clothes and acts like a free young woman who owns the world.

The friends:
DODO, 35, gay, fashion designer. Rose’s best friend.

JULIA, 35, psychoanalyst. She has two children.

GIL, 45/50, divorced with a daughter. Rose’s lover.

JOSE RAIMUNDO, 21, engineering student. Carmen’s husband to be.

NOEMIA, 47 and MARIA FELICIA, 50, childhood friends of ELEONORA.

Synopsis
BRASIL - CEARA' 1997
It is the week before the fourth marriage of Carmen, one of the four daughters of Donna LETICIA, matriarch of the north-east, descendent of an ancient family of Cearà.

ELEONORA, writer and eldest of the four sisters. She comes from Italy where she has lived for years bringing with her and to the heart of the family, especially ROSE (sister and confidante), her most recent experiences: a book recently published in Italy her step daughter SELVAGGIA, with whom she has an affectionate, complicated and unusual relationship.

ISABEL, married, has lived for many years in the United States. She is always hounded by frustration, whether it be due to her husband who is always too busy, but with whom she is madly in love, or because she is unable to become mother.

CARMEN, the bride, it is her fourth attempt at marriage, her previous ones to a Russian, a Tyrolese and a Hawaian having failed.

ROSE, lives in Fortaleza. She is single, plastic artist and painter, good with the Tarot cards and knows a little about everything, except love. She loves GIL with whom she has had a relationship for years, but isn’t the “only one”. It causes her to suffer but she is unable to let go of him.

To complement these characters , their closest friends:

DODO, gay, fashion designer, great friend and favourite of ROSE. He is the one that animates the evenings in the sisters’ circle of friends.

JULIA, psychologist and “emergency” analyst of ISABEL, the frailest of the sisters.

MARIA FELICIA and NOEMIA, old friends full of life who brighten up the evenings with their amusingly absurd and disrespectful stories.

PRUDENCIA, is Donna LETIZIA’S niece, the family nurse and companion, the only one who knows all its secrets.

JUSTINA, grew up in Donna LETIZIA’S house and helps with the housework.

The story unfolds in an atmosphere full of scenarios that gradually reveal a colourful spectrum of the guests’ frustrations, anxieties, moods and humour. From the secure base of a traditional rural home emerges the behavioural evolution of a family that is in daily contact with a world that is more and more sophisticated and aggressive, but nevertheless manages to find the necessary time to realise its dreams, existential though they may be.

The beauty of Cearà’s different regions complete the picturesque portrait of the characters.

She has participated in the following Festivals:

FESTIVAL DO CINEMA DO CEARA' FORTALEZA
CEARA' - BRAZIL (10/17 June, 2000)
OFFICIAL INAUGURATION OF FESTIVAL – NOT FOR COMPETITION

FESTIVAL DE GRAMADO
RIO GRANDE DO SUL – BRAZIL (31 July - 1 August, 2000)
OFFICIAL SELECTION
AWARDS:
KIKITO FOR BEST LEAD ACTRESS
KIKITO FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE CINE DONOSTIA SAN SEBASTIAN
DONOSTIA SAN SEBASTIAN - SPAIN (21/30 SEPTEMBER, 2000)
ZABALTEGI SELECTION (Reserved for 1st and 2nd time directors)

FESTIVAL RIO GRANDE DO NORTE
NATAL - BRASIL (DECEMBER, 2000)
OFFICIAL SELECTION
AWARDS:
AWARD FOR BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

MUESTRA DE CINE REPUBLICA DOMINICANA
REPUBBLICA DOMINICANA (8/18 MARCH, 2001)
OFFICIAL SELECTION

FESTIVAL CINEMA AFRICANO MILANO
ITALY (23/29 MARCH, 2001)
NOT FOR COMPETITION
PARTICIPATION IN THE FOLLOWING CATEGORY: "UNA FINESTRA SUL MONDO"
FLORINDA BOLKAN MEMBER OF THE JURY FOR THE OFFICIAL SELECTION

SCHERMI D'AMORE FESTIVAL DEL MELO' VERONA
ITALY (20/30 APRIL, 2001)
NOT FOR COMPETITION
FLORINDA BOLKAN SPECIAL GUEST

CHICAGO LATINO FILM FESTIVAL CHICAGO
USA (20 APRIL-1° MAY, 2001)
OFFICIAL SELECTION

FILM FESTIVAL TROIA SETUBAL
PORTUGAL (1/10 JUNE, 2001)
PARTICIPATION IN FIRST WORK CATEGORY
FLORINDA BOLKAN PRESIDENT OF THE OFFICIAL SELECTION

FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE CINE DONOSTIA SAN SEBASTIAN
DONOSTIA SAN SEBASTIAN – SPAIN (20/29 SEPTEMBER, 2001)
FLORINDA BOLKAN MEMBER OF THE JURY FOR THE OFFICIAL SELECTION

FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA- FIC BRASILIA 2002
BRAZIL (17 /28 APRIL, 2002)
FLORINDA BOLKAN PRESIDENT OF THE JURY FOR THE OFFICIAL SELECTION
RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION DEDICATED TO FLORINDA BOLKAN