Intimacy and cordiality in Kleber Mendonca Filho's Aquarius

Taking as its point of departure Sergio Buarque de Holanda's theorising of O homem cordial (cordial man) and Gilberto Freyre's foundational text Casa-grande & senzala (The Masters and the Slaves), this article will present a reading of Kleber Mendonca Filho's second feature film Aquarius (2016) as a contemporary revision of the well-worn myths of intimacy and cordiality in Brazilian culture. It will focus on the complex relationship between maids and mistresses in Brazilian, and by extension, South American cultural history, and in particular the points at which unequal power relationships, superficially cordial and intimate, are dramatically undone.