Magnificent Desolation

Directed by Fernando Coimbra

In the mid-1990s, the Brazilian government handed over control of its railroads to the private sector. There was then a reduction of passenger train lines to almost zero and shrinkage of the rail freight network. The machinists, who once traveled with an assistant, began to work completely on their own in their long journeys. The film presents a subjective view on the daily life of these professionals and their solitary routine in the midst of a grandiose, tedious, desolate and at the same time passionate universe.