Actor and film director, Werner Shünemann, who in the last few years has been working in television, plays Miguel in 2004. Miguel has become a Federal Deputy, the way he has found to deal with today’s politics. His reencounter with Jorginho provokes a reflection and a balance of accounts between these two lives-and in a certain sense between these two worlds-in the last 30 years.

What moved you the most about the film?

When Lúcia Murat gave me the script, the quality of the dialogues, and the maturity of the characters. I think “Almost Brothers” was made for the spectator. I am very proud to have made this film. It introduces a vision about this period in Brazil that, in most cases, is almost unacknowledged, almost not spoken about. In addition, it’s interesting to note how the personal experiences of some people under the Brazilian military dictatorship were used to enrich the story.

And also about the people that “Almost Brothers” deals with, about the political prisoners and their ideals. The film touches the political and ideological extension that the years of torture and authoritarianism provoked, not only in the prison system, but also throughout Brazilian society. For me it was important to work in a film that takes to the screen a story that millions of Brazilians are totally unaware of.

Talk a little about Miguel, the character that you play.

I made an effort to understand what happened in the mind of Miguelzinho for all that radicalism to be transformed into radicality. The political activist transforms himself into a representative that incorporates more observation than the other. I thought it was beautiful.

In the process it is how reflection enriched the character. From the dialogues with Antonio Pompeu in prison you perceive how they expanded their horizons to something that was strange. I think this is the great secret of civilization: not rules, tolerance.

Miguelzinho is very familiar to me, because of this, it was easy to play his role. For me, being a movie actor is the best job in the world. Till today I have never had one day the same as another in the cinema. This, for aperson as restless as I am is a gift. These millions of possibilities, this multitude that we carry inside ourselves. The actor knows some tricks to dig out the multitude and and bring them to the front. And for this there is no better place than a film set to stimulate thi creative processo.