Olga Benário – Revolutionary Hero

Because I love Brazil, its culture, music, dance, the sun and most of all the friendly Brazilian people I am learning the language. Brazilians speak Portuguese and it is no easy task for an English speaker, of a certain age, to grasp this difficult but beautiful language.

Apart from personal study I have a Portuguese teacher when I am in London and my Brazilian friends help me when, like now, I am in Brazil.

I have found that to watch Brazilian made movies with the dialogue and subtitles in Portuguese is very helpful. By listening and reading at the same time I learn the pronunciation and improve my vocabulary.

Rummaging through the DVD shelves of a Campinas second-hand store I found a used copy of the Brazilian movie OLGA. Olga is a film made in 2004 by Brazilian director Jayme Monjardim, inspired by the biography written by Fernando Morais on the German, Jewish and communist Olga Benário.

Olga Benário

It is based upon the true story of Olga Benário, the German-born wife of Brazilian communist leader Luís Carlos Prestes. During the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas (1930-1945) she was arrested and sent to Nazi Germany, where she was put to death in a concentration camp.

The film is emotionally moving and an inspiration to all people who want a better, fairer world. Her journey starts from her first steps in Communism when she ran away from Berlin to Moscow in 1928, to her cruel death, at Bernburg in 1942.

To me she is one of the great heroes of the left, a true revolutionary. Olga Benário was a woman who lived and lost her life fighting for freedom from fascism, poverty and oppression. I highly recommend this movie, go to the trailer here.

 Trailer

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