hfazevedo This film is based on the same name book of the Portuguese writer Ferreira de Castro. Because his monarchical ideas, the writer was forced, at the beginning of the 20th century, to emigrate to the Amazon forest, an unforgettable ind inhospitable place. The film biopic represent this phase of their incredible life. I love this Portuguese film.

mario_c Adapted from a Novel by Ferreira de Castro (a Portuguese writer from the XX century) A SELVA is nice co-production between Portugal, Brazil and Spain, directed by Leonel Vieira. I didn't read the book so I can't tell about the novel itself or its adaptation to the screen, but I can tell you I did enjoy the movie and the way it was directed and produced. The cinematography is also good. I think it's visually very strong and beautiful. And about the production I must say it's above the average Portuguese movie! Probably because it's an international co-production and probably because it had more money than the Portuguese movies use to have, but a nice job was done anyway. The acting is very nice too. It was interesting to see actors from three different nationalities work together so well. The soundtrack has the typical music of an epic story but it's a bit unoriginal and repetitive. Overall I think A SELVA is one of the best movies in Leonel Vieira's career and undoubtedly one of the best (co-) productions of the Portuguese cinema ever. I score it 8/10 (one extra point for the nice production).

jguilherme717 I've seen A Selva. It's a Portuguese/Spanish/Brazilian production, with a Portuguese director. Good actors from Brazilian ranking, such as Maitê Proença, Claudio Marzo, Roberto Bonfim, Gracindo Júnior, Chico Díaz, José Dumont, and others, all highlighted by former careers on TV and in the movies. But their talents are spoiled, as if we could say they (the talents) were "pearls given to the pigs". The film is too schematic, too academic, too "square", like all TV Globo "videonovel" productions. The magnificent scenery is worthy to see. But the performances are all too much "correct",with no heart-giving, no delivery to the characters. The Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado (is he a relative to "our" excellent Brazilian actress Camila Morgado? if so, he has some things to learn with her...) works on a schematic line, without "incorporating" his dubious and ambiguous character, a monarchist dandy who exiles himself in the Rain Forest, running from Portugal after a revolution won by the republican branch of political society. There are much better things going on on movie screens countrywide. If you doubt me, go and see it. But don't complain I didn't warn you!

umyde This is the first Leonel Vieira movie I see, so my expectations were based on what I knew of his previous work - which was that he directed two of the most famous recent mainstream movies in Portugal - A BOMBA and ZONA J. I also knew that this was the biggest portuguese production ever.In fact, the production was very good and care was taken to make this an american standart-quality work. Also, for the first time, one gets to see convincing acting, which is something to praise on a portuguese movie. Ironically, the main character, which is one of the few portuguese actors, displays the worst and least convincing acting in the set. The distance from Diogo Morgado to the brazilian diva Maitê Proença (the woman to which he falls in love) is immense. This flaw, however, is well hidden in the nature of his character and on the reduced speech it has.All in all, considering the huge difficulties surrounding the making of this motion picture (starting with it being filmed in Amazonia), I would say that it pretty much managed to pull itself together. Aside from the acting of Diogo Morgado and some minor storyline weaknesses (but then again, I haven't read the novel on which the movie was based), it has a well polished production quality and direction steadiness that surpasses by far most of what is made in Portugal. Too bad, though, that the cast is presented in spanish.