The Machine (A Máquina)

Let's get out of here. The car is about to come...

Antonio is right there. Come on, come on.

A Máquina - The Machine -

Back where Antonio comes from is incredibly far away.

Incredibly far away in time,

which is even more distant than incredibly far away in space.

After all, to come from a faraway place in space

is nothing to be especially proud of,

as all winged creatures certainly know.

But to come from a long distance in time

it's what one really can call to come from afar.

From a distance that can take forever to get unimpossible.

But back in Antonio's time,

this world had already become a mad world.

And if you want to understand how mad it was,

you have to start from the beginning,

from billions of years ago, when this world came to be.

Everything was dry as hell.

There was neither land or sky, nor beast or human.

There was nothing. Only pitch black darkness.

And then God got a little fed up with that

and decided to create the world. He thought:

"How silly I am!"

"Why linger in this nothingness when I can invent whatever I want?"

- And off He went, inventing away. - First He invented...

Time, so He would have the time to invent everything else.

- And then... - The Heavens,

to have a place to live in.

But, as the Heavens needed something to hang upon...

- God invented... - The Earth to go beneath it.

And God thought:

"Shouldn't there be something under the Earth as well?"

Then, He...

He picked up Hell and placed underneath.

- I wanna speak! - At first,

this was the Earth's only purpose:

To be under the Heavens and over Hell.

But then God said:

"Well, now there's Earth,

I might as well invent people to live upon it."

And, with this, He created life.

And death, for all living beings will eventually die.

"Damn it", it occurred to Him.

"If every creature has a nose, a mouth,

ears and eyes, all these need to have a purpose."

With the eyes one looks up to the Heavens, with the nose one breathes

throughout life and stops breathing to rest in peace.

But the mouth and the ears remained useless,

and that's why God made the Logos.

Logos was the way God referred to the words.

And God starts inventing them all.

- Mountain. - River.

- Stream. - Elephant.

- Donkey. - Grass.

Avocado, sapodilla, tangerine.

But because every word needed a thing to correspond to it,

God had to invent a lot of things.

So there would be a thing for each word.

Avocado, sapodilla, tangerine, grass, elephant, donkey.

- Mountain, river, stream. - And as if these weren't enough,

men invented even more things.

Nail, screw, corn meal, button, popsicle...

From when the world was invented till Antonio's time,

a lot of words were invented.

A lot of things happened, a lot of time had to pass

before Antonio's day in time.

But Antonio's time, as it was known afterwards,

Antonio's time has begun when Antonio came to this world.

These silly people ask if I want my own soccer team.

No way! I've never liked the figure 11.

Is it "figure" you say, Valdene? Anyway, it doesn't matter.

I prefer 7. The number of Wonders of the World.

And 13, only to defy luck.

"13 sons? All boys? That's impossible."

Is it Law of Probability... Is it how you say it, Valdene?

I don't know anything about laws.

I want that you take this picture, Mr. Jaime,

so people won't gossip. Thirteen sons right here.

Valdene, Martoni, Marcondes, Marcos, Marvin, Maciel,

Cristiano, Santiago, Z? Geraldo,

S?vio, Saulo, St?fano and Antonio.

And you, mister, be still!

I want this picture taken and I want it now. I'm talking to you both.

You that have just arrived, and the other that is going away.

I don't want to ruin my only portrait with the whole family together

because a boy is eager to hit the road and the other is screaming...

his heart out. Shut up, Antonio!

Do you wanna cry? Do you?

Ok, you can cry.

Scream louder.

Come on...

But if you don't stop screaming we won't take this picture.

Please forgive me, Mr. Jaime, but I won't do it this way.

Go play outside! Off you go! All of you. There won't be any picture.

- And what about me, mommy? - You're gonna wait till this...

- picture is taken. - But you've said...

- there wouldn't be any. - Not until this brat shuts up.

I won't have a sad or noisy portrait. You calm yourself down and wait...

till your brother quiets down. Then we'll take the picture,

I'll give you my blessing, God will bless you, after this you can go.

Do you want me to miss the van tomorrow?

Do you want me to wait another whole week for the next van?

And spend another 7 days in this God-forsaken village of Nordestina?

Dear Lord of Time, the boy won't stop screaming.

Father, You that order all that happens through out time

You that establish all the beginnings and the ends

and guide us all towards Madam Eternity,

I offer you this boy, Antonio, that today is 5 years old,

five years of tears. Irok, my Father, sacred Kala,

Lord of the Hours, my saint, take my Antonio and dry his tears,

take him through the paths of joy, always. For what comes with time.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost,

in the name of Our Lady, ax?, amen.

C'mon, everyone! Antonio stopped crying!

And as Time had made tears fall from the sky instead of

Antonio's eyes, it seemed to have taken the boy under its wing.

Antonio had heard this story since he was little,

and was certain that he was truly a son of Time.

Antonio,

do you see the spot from where we can't see anymore?

The very spot that divides it all?

Don't you see a line there?

It is known as the line of horizon,

but I prefer to call it "the cross".

And when I cross this so-called line

I'll want to check if there's really a line on the ground

between Nordestina and the next town.

But what I wanna see the most

is how things are beyond that line,

in this "world"...

people talk so much about.

What about you?

Tomorrow, after I leave, you'll be the next in line.

But you'll never truly leave, I know that.

You will be forever "the next in line".

And in the end you will be "the one who never left".

I don't get what you find so special about this place.

There was a girl in Nordestina living right over there,

in a house down the street. This girl had a way of narrowing her eyes

as she looked at things, and Antonio was madly in love with her.

Who knows?

This may be the beginning of a story that has just begun

FOR SALE

Who knows?

I might be the leading lady of this story

CITY HALL FRANCHISE AVAILABLE Who knows?

This might be the reason why

Every thought I have turns into a song

LEARN TO SPEAK RIO DE JANEIRO'S SLANG A theme song for the leading lady

A starting song

Who knows? - Karina!

Hey, J?ssica.

Prazeres is waiting for you. Everyone has tried on their costumes

- and chosen their masks. - Every-one, J?ssica?

Are you and the girls everyone?

The same old faces everytime...

Last year it only made me mad.

But this year they say we'll even have strangers.

Who will want to come to a masquerade in Nordestina?

The strange places these people come from must be even worse than here.

But Prazeres says your costume is almost ready

and there's no way she'll take it back.

And who told her to make me a costume

- before I ordered it? - She didn't tell me that.

COSTUMES FOR THE MASQUERADE

What's with all the people in front of the church?

- Today is van's day. - So today is Monday.

And if today is Monday, tomorrow will be Tuesday.

Mrs. Ernestina left on a Tuesday, didn't she?

It was probably on a Monday, on van's day.

Mrs. Ernestina always said flask instead of glass.

There they go, another herd of fools.

These people are just dumb, that's what they are.

They think they'll get away from here and go places, be somebody,

but they just end up like everybody else.

A couple more lost souls in the world.

Just like your mother, such a pathetic woman.

They'll forget about their families,

their friends, even their children.

Do you know what we call it?

Ingratitude, that's what it is.

How can this town move forward,

if everyone just leaves it behind?

People leave because there's no money here.

And why won't they send some money here?

If everyone is leaving anyway?

- So they might stay. - But there ain't no money here!

Karina, Karina!

Beware of this kind of thinking, little lady!

Hey...

How much was it?

- Take it as a gift. - This way I won't take it.

R$19,99.

- I don't have change. - Take it as a gift.

The only gift I want is the honor

of bringing these ocean-blue eyes to the world. Have you decided yet?

When I decide to go, I'll buy the ticket and leave.

And I won't need to tell you in advance.

You have quite a wait until you come of age and do it.

It makes me sick just thinking about it.