Citizen Boilesen

"Henning Boilesen" would seem to be somewhat of a random street name in the exotic city of São Paolo. Who is Mr. Boilesen? The residents aren't exactly sure, which serves as reason enough for the filmmakers to start an investigation. They quickly learn that the street was named for a Danish businessman who was killed by soldiers in São Paolo in 1971. But why? Using black-and-white archive footage and interviews with writers, psychologists, leftist demonstrators and former soldiers, Citizen Boilesen reconstructs the Dane's illustrious past. Was this Kirk Douglas lookalike (as one person typifies him) indeed a charismatic, popular man? Is there any truth to the stories about his friendship with the ultraviolent politician Sergió Fleury? To give the viewer an impression of the political struggle between left and right and the culture of fear and terror of the 1960s and 1970s, director Chaim Litewski intersperses the interviews with excerpts from feature films. Nationalistic music about the Brazilian fatherland accompanies archive footage of demonstrations, funeral processions and riots. In the process, we learn more and more about Boilesen and his controversial role in one of the most violent eras in Brazilian history.