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22 out of 25 people found the following comment useful :- Woah, 14 February 2001 Author: Troy Delaney (troyd-3) from Santa Cruz, California
Saw this documentary short subject in my World Society course at UC Santa Cruz. It's about capitalism, told through the story of a tomato. But, thinking back on it, it was much more than just that tomato, that went into the making of the family's dinner, which was bought with money, which was acquired through the mother's perfume sales, which is an alcohol-based topical fragrance oil. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, this is how the film is paced. It is the very reason the word "Tangential" was created. Furtado is so crafty at taking you to places you never think you'll go; from painfully hilarious irony (the monty python-esque first 5 minutes), to head-battering shock (the history of "the second");just by mentioning a single word, you could travel from a dollar bill to a pile of emaciated bodies, within a matter of seconds. And none of the connections are far-fetched. His story is based on the theory of six degrees of separation, and how he arrives at those final, latent images of haunting truth is a trip that must be taken.I was recently compiling a list of my favorite movies of 2000, and the best films I saw were the reissues of "The Exorcist" and "Blood Simple", and this, a 15 minute documentary about capitalism. Very weird, but it is true. If I ever get the chance to see this again, I will relish every second of it as if it were the first time. And if you are a student, you should check your campus library for "Ilha das flores", because it is amazing.
22 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :- Funny... at first., 18 April 2000 Author: Trufó from Cologne, Germany
Funny at first, demolishing in the end. When I saw this movie for the first time I spend the first minutes laughing: the editing is fast paced and the voice over explains one after another different concepts that apparently are barely connected. But in the end all grows into a perfectly mounted description of the economical and political aberrations of our times, all in less than 30 minutes.
17 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :- A little masterpiece, 5 June 2000 Author: Felipe Cavalcanti (fdgc@free.elogica.com.br) from Recife, Brazil
Here's a work that definitely proves how exciting and questioning a short movie picture can be.Acting as a director, writer and producer, Jorge Furtado couragely aims a dazzling machinegun at issues as assorted as religion, Holocaust, Brazilian government, poverty, capitalism, and how human intelligence has been used throughout the ages.Using a dialectical method, and narrating the story in a way that "even a Martian would understand", in the words of the author, the film forges a real cinematographical theorem of Brazilian deplorable situation, borrowing as the stage a neighbourhood in the city of Porto Alegre (one of Brazil's most developed ones, by the way). The degrading scenario, however, would apply to any community on the world in which the effects of money (or its lack) on the lives of its inhabitants are more visible.In the movie's touching final take, Furtado destroys the bourgeois concept of Freedom, quoting a line from one of Brazil's greatest poetesses, Cecilia Meirelles, and leaves us wondering whether modern 'civilisation' is as far as the human intellect can take us.
15 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :- Best thirteen-minute film I've ever seen, 20 March 2000 Author: Devon Reed from Berkeley, CA
Not that I've seen a lot, of course. I caught this short in my documentary film class at the beginning of the semester. Unfortunately, I never saw another film better than this one. If you can find it, definitely check it out. The film says more about the human condition in fifteen minutes than most similarly themed films say in two hours. Devilishly humorous, the film hints along the way that there is more at stake than the running joke about a tomato would indicate. It's crucial to know as little as possible, so if you have a good independent video store nearby, seek it out and don't ask questions.
15 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :- The best short-movie I ever seen in my life, 4 January 2003 Author: Airton Jordani from Porto Alegre, Brazil
Jorge Furtado needed no more than 13 minutes to prove his theory "there's no God", showed in the beginning of the movie. This movie is as raw as fresh meat and cuts like a knife. No more words to describe. You must see it for yourself. Believe me, after you watch this movie you won't forget it never more.
10 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :- The Wild Brazilian Capitalism, or The Difference Between Tomatoes, Pigs and Poor Brazilian People, 25 November 2006 Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The ironic, heartbreaking and acid "saga" of a spoiled tomato: from the plantation of a "Nisei" (Brazilian with Japanese origins); to a supermarket; to a consumer's kitchen to become sauce of a pork meat; to the garbage can since it is spoiled for the consumption; to a garbage truck to be dumped in a garbage dump in "Ilha das Flores"; to the selection of nutriment for pigs by the employees of a pigs breeder; to become food for poor Brazilian people.Today I have had the chance to see "Ilha das Flores", one of the first works of Jorge Furtado, one of or maybe my favorite Brazilian director in the present days. With a perfect logic, and a pace of video clip, Jorge Furtado exposes the wild Brazilian capitalism, where there are two countries: for those that can afford, and for the millions of miserable that are below a pig in the hierarchy of disputing garbage. This documentary is a devastating and overwhelming social critic to our modern society and may be seen as a funny satire by foreigners, but unfortunately reflects the sad reality of my country. Mandatory masterpiece! My vote is ten.Title (Brazil): "Ilha das Flores" ("Isle of Flowers")
12 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :- Impressed with the subject and execution, 5 November 1999 Author: Richard Teague (Spacka) from Los Angeles, California
This short is a fine example of people with something crucial to say, having to bend to commercial whims of entertainment in order to hold the audience's attention span long enough to get the message across. It is remarkably witty, and runs at a fanatical pace. The jokes cause a smile, but when the holocaust clips arise, we get the clue that there are weighty matters at stake here. People need to see films like this. Remarkably effective.
9 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :- A thrilling social documentary, 30 July 1999 Author: Thierry Bézecourt (thbzcrt@worldnet.fr) from Paris, France
That's the kind of movie you'll see quite by chance, one evening on television. And you will never forget it."Ilha das flores" is the story of a tomato, from the field where it is cultivated to the dustbin, and beyond. It's fun, and, at the same time, it tells you a lot about the economy and the Brazilian society. What is really unique for a documentary is that the story is as pleasant to follow as in a fiction, and the end is one of the more stunning and moving end I have ever seen in a movie.
6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :- Will keep you pensive for long, 15 January 2008 Author: Huineman from Spain
Very seldom is one given the opportunity to watch a documentary like Ilha das Flores. It is less a TV product than an essay not written but filmed, and well filmed indeed. The ideas displayed throughout barely quarter an hour are so many and so profound that you might need more than one view to assimilate them all; but the script is so agile that you will never grow bored. Instead, even if you are not in the mood for documentaries at the beginning, will find yourself deeply interested in this humble production within minutes, if not seconds. But remember, you are not dealing with an entertainment product but with one of the best lessons of ethics you might come across ever. Anyway, that you will realize for sure at the end of the film, when its ideas, lingering in your head, will keep you pensive for long.
10 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :- It's mostly about environmental awareness, 6 March 2005 Author: eliepoliti from Brazil
I'm using my personal VHS copy of this excellent short in my environmental awareness classes for high school, and students are always stroked by its accurate and intelligent issues.It always provides very large and useful discussion about environmental issues.With a very well humored screenplay and very well balanced use of fiction, documentary and table top animation, this short gives you an overview of what happens in our affluent society with any natural or produced good, with domestic and industrial waste and discussing some very special social issues.Interesting thing is that this short Ilha days Flores ( Flower Island, in English pronounced Ilya Dass Floresh) it is not outdated, not growing old and unfortunately still shocking when you think of what is happening with all the waste in our society, when people are less important than the profit made.
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