Original subtitles

You don't know what it's like being from Bras�lia.

I'm not talking about coming here to live with your congressman father...

or for some shitty job in the civil service.

I'm talking about being from Bras�lia.

To hang out on the streets, doing jack shit...

trying to get a job with the government...

have some half-ass band, wanting to be a pop star.

The thing is, that under that beautiful blue sky...

on the immense green lawns...

the place is full of fascists with their tinny mutts...

shitting on the sidewalks, thinking they're king of streets.

Let's be honest with each other:

Bras�lia sucks!

If there is a book on the history of Brasilia, it's about 10 pages long.

But, then again, it can be alright at times.

This is the place I began looking for something to do.

I'd walk through the streets, under that blue sky again...

fucking hot as shit, dry as hell...

seems like you've always got a sore throat.

You know what? One day I just tuned in and dropped out.

No more social security card, no telephone, no address...

no taxes, no job, no more bureaucracy.

I never thought I'd go so far.

LINO 12 MINUTES EARLIER

Helicopter was the first word I ever said.

When I was 4. I remember real well.

I woke up from some strange dream. My cousin gave me a toy and I said:

"Helicopter".

CLEPTOMANIAC AND ALCOHOLIC 6 MINUTES LATER

But what you want to know is how the Conception Republic began.

We'd all hang out at Lino and Alex's apartment boozing it up.

It was the only place to go.

When Alex's parents went to live in Spain...

he had to stay and finish college.

I went to live with him.

From then on it was one party after the next.

No day was like the last.

Only then, Alex decided to start rocking the boat.

One night he met the guy who said what he wanted to hear.

Be everything, in every way...

all the time.

So the guy went living at our place. And then...

nobody was the same after that.

THIS BAND LASTED FOR ONLY A DAY

I'm not sure that's how the Conception began.

I can't remember very well. I remember that I was fucked up.

In reality, it all began when my girlfriend dumped me...

and I decided that I'd be somebody else.

I would be somebody else, and the change would start on the outside.

But there was this lecture I went with Liz too.

Krishnamurti said that pain and frustration...

only exist because of our memory.

Memory is something that has to be emptied.

It should die every day.

I read Krishnamurti.

It's just that for me he wasn't very extreme.

Liz.

Liz's father was some diplomat.

I think her old man was even a minister or something.

Her family had gone to live in some weird place...

in Bangladesh.

LIZ-12 YEARS LATER There was never...

a conceptionist group. We never even called ourselves that.

The term "conceptionist"?

I don't know how it started.

We were just screwing around, but everyone took it seriously.

LAUNCH OF THE CONCEPTIONIST MANIFEST-SOME DAY IN APRIL

So I won't have to burn you all

I'm going to lay the foundation...

of a revolutionary movement...

orgiastic, which is going to be called...

"The Conception".

The Conception has a couple of rules. Number 1:

Death to the Ego.

Be a new character every fucking day.

A new character every day.

Memories don't help to explain death.

Number 4...

Every Conceptualist should sleep nude...

for purification.

Humanity is sick.

Conceptionism is the road that leads to the cure, to cure this girl.

Number 6 or 7...

Only conceptionists know how to live without money!

Anybody have any money?

All conceptionists are frauds that last 24 hours.

Fuck all this shit! Burn your ID's! Burn them! Burn!

Dead! And saved!

Burn it!

And let the orgy begin...

the unique character of every conceptionist.

Enough bullshit.

You'll be saved!

Helicopter.

Helicopter.

Helicopter.

Thinking better...

I have to tell you about Ariane...

and how she came into the group.

I'll have one of these too.

So, did it hurt when you fell from the sky?

What you think about me being your cowboy and you'll be my...

cow?

I can grab you by the horns...

tie you up...

Good morning.

Time to get up, baby.

Good morning, princess.

Princess?

Shit!

What'd you do, huh? What'd you take?

C'mon, wake up!

Girl... What'd you do?

Thank God.

Thank God.

You sure got me scared, whitey.

Hi.

My name is Lino.

What's yours?

- I'm... - You OK?

What's your name?

You want to know something else?

Milk shake!

Lots, lots...

little...

lots...

The excess road leads to the palace of wisdom.

Is everybody in?

Because the ceremony is about to begin.

Through sacred drunkenness we affirm our methods.

Now you, Nameless Girl.

Bring on sweet death.

We've all talked so much here, and you're asking something real simple.

Ariane.

Liz said she didn't know no Ariane, right?

This bit about a movement, manifesto.

It's all ridiculous.

Why don't you just admit it's all bullshit?

Nobody can stop being who they really are.

You ever hear about essence?

Of what?

Strawberry?

You know what I mean.

What we've got deep down inside, what we're born with...

like some kind of tattoo in our eyes.

Bullshit.

You... You know what your essence is?

No, but I don't count. I'm sick, Liz.

Maybe you're not the one who's sick.

You keep fooling yourself, huh? You pretend you don't understand.

Look at M�rcio.

He can be a punk one day, a hippie the next...

but he'll never stop being an alcoholic.

That's the idea.

Try to be someone else.

Oh yeah? I don't think so.

I think you all just make a game out of it.

Assume who you are. At least it's more honest.

I'm in no mood to be honest today.

I hate you.

Good morning.

Who are you?

Liz, stop this stupid theater.

Sorry.

You must be friends with someone in the other room.

Gotta go. Work. You know how it is.

Liz? Liz?

Liz?

What are you doing to them?

What you think you're doing with them, you asshole?

No way out of it.

We only got as far as we did because of X.

Nobody knew where X was from.

We even called him X because we didn't know his name.

A name was a prison according to him.

X was a professional at being nobody.

He knew how to falsify documents and split just before being caught.

He knew all the techniques.

We never knew anything about his past.

If it weren't for a few pictures, films, Super 8...

we couldn't even prove he had lived with us.

He hid different accents, mixed them all up...

spoke a new language every day in a different way.

- Knew how to be seductive. - I'm a compulsive guest.

How to be stupid...

- how to be a shit head. - I'm not what you think!

Educated.

Always kept some truth up his sleeve.

They say he used to be a doctor.

Must have been because the guy knew all about drugs.

Liz said that he was some kind of alchemist. Pretty stupid, huh?

He might not have been a doctor, probably some former criminal.

He knew a lot about disguises too.

Could change the way he looked from one day to the next.

He put on philosophical airs.

He used to say that every action is basically political.

Maybe yes, maybe not.

M�rcio thought he was some ex-guerilla who freaked out good.

The movement was his idea.

It was just a game for us, having a good time...

but he was serious about it.

He wanted to go as far as he could and take as many people with him.

You can't blame X for everything, but...

We met him at the red-light district.

We all loved to go whoring.

Not only because of the whores...

but because of some compulsion we had.

Man, great hair! It goes with your face.

Alex liked him, or her...

because of his philosophical bullshit.

I thought it was stupid, but Alex was swept off his feet.

Have an idea. Everyday, all ideas, and be sincere...

to all of them.

Attain to the long sought spiritual freedom...

and love everything like you would God.

Ah, amazing...

Total detachment from all things...

Big "detachment" you have there, bro.

You sure you got a dick in there?

You've got an ass like a girl.

Sluts have to pay, but I'll do you for free.

Sounds a lot for a person, but for a business that's...

Excuse me for interrupting.

Forgive me. But I'm impressed...

with the receptivity of the hotel industry in Cear� this year.

He was weird, weird as hell.

I'm nothing. Don't want to be anything!

I'm not what you think!

You think I'm something? You're wrong.

Thinking something else? Wrong again. I'm nothing!

I've tried real hard my whole life to be free.

Free from my house, my friends, my family...

my money, my books, my religion...

my work, my what-fucking-ever...

my what-the-fuck!

You look in the mirror everyday.

At the end of the day you take the mirror and throw it away!

That's the only way you can...

be somebody else everyday and not die.

Because being stuck with yourself...

is like dying.

I want more. I want to...

I want to fly more.

I want to play with the Gods, be everything.

If my veins have whore's blood, saint's blood, children's blood...

son-of-a-bitch's blood...

I want it all. I don't want to become a prisoner inside myself.

That's death.

In reality, if it weren't for X...

the story would be completely different.

I want something else.

THE CONCEPTIONIST MANIFEST

A CONCEPTIONIST AFTERNOON

A CONCEPTIONIST VIDEO-DIARY There is no Liz!

Who's gonna reduce me to Liz?

A CONCEPTIONIST BAND

THE GREAT CONCEPTIONIST POEM

A TRIVIAL CONCEPTIONIST DAY

A CONCEPTIONIST LECTURE

Well...

Dextrina is used in the treatment...

of obesity.

If taken three times a day. It causes...

excitation, a loss of your notion of time.

Obloplus 2 mg is imported from Holland.

It cures dysentery and provokes...

a loss of anxiety...

insomnia and a little headache.

Murii is a herb from the Amazon Rain Forest...

it is a herb to soothe headaches and insomnia...

but when mixed...

with the pollen of the "angelus propilus" flower...

causes generalized anesthesia.

Murii. Another infusion which causes hallucinations...

and your senses to become very sensitive: touch, smell...

Everything is skin deep and your past memories...

become nightmares.

Now the best of them all:

GHB. Cerebral blackout.

One dose of this here and you won't remember anything.

All drugs became our favorites.

GHB, for instance.

The shit was so good that you'd wake up every two hours to take a dose.

You couldn't even remember who you were after a week.

Want some tea?

You didn't even know if you were human.

There should be fish in here.

So, tell me Alex...

are you a man...

or a mouse?

And now, the best of them all:

GHB.

Hey, sun! Aren't you going to answer me?

Ah, it's coming out.

I'm not Alex anymore. I'm not.

Sad girl, have some candy. Have some candy.

And dream.

Dream.

Miss Ariane Shimer?

Doctor, she's coming to.

Ariane?

Ariane?

Ariane?

Ariane?

Let me go!

Stop it! Stop it!

Doctor, she's coming to.

Good morning.

Who are you?

The Conception began to get serious from this day on.

Stop this ridiculous theater.

It was time to really become someone else.

Go beyond acting, free will, stupid tricks.

Liz!

Liz?

Alex, what's going on?

Lino?

They're being sissies!

What are you doing?

What are you doing to them, asshole?

What are you doing to them?

We not only had to create a new name everyday, wear different clothes.

We had to create new social security numbers, bank cards, checks.

Miss Margareth Alvarenga, corridor or window?

I'd prefer corridor.

Dona Matilde...

tell Mr. G�mez that Dona Lu�za Medeiros from Bras�lia has arrived.

3 MINUTES LATER

Let me see how I look on this camera.

I like it. Very much. I'll take it, and some tapes too.

And how will you be paying for them?

Mrs. Carla Pompeu, your room is number 47.

Thank you.

Diary of a conceptionist, first day, S�o Paulo.

Calling home.

Hello? X?

You're a genius, a father...

an angel. Thank you, X!

Cut it out.

Today, I'm going to be...

Louren�o Paulo da Silva, a grease monkey.

LEILA SANTOS - WAITRESS

I'm Rodolfo Oliveira, promo agent. I'd like to talk to you all about...

the tropics, the fjords...

It's just that my friend here, Sonja, has come from Norway...

and she's got a restaurant...

F�TIMA LUZ BORN IN 06/16/78

Today, I'm going to be...

Jo�o Carlos Coelho...

raw materials salesman.

Good afternoon, gentleman, how can I help you?

Hello, how are you? Listen...

my friend here is a diplomat and has just arrived from Iceland.

You might not believe it, but his luggage was misplaced.

He has to go to a party at the embassy today...

and he has no clothes to wear. Do you think you can help us...

show us some suits, whatever you've got.

- What'd he say? - He'd like just a basic suit.

Wonderful.

Mr. Louis Montenegro...

- do you have any ID, please? - What's that, sweetie?

- Your ID, please. - Just a second.

- Here you go. - Excuse me for a minute.

A toast to our great fals...

Why don't you yell it out? Put it in the papers.

You, redneck! Take note, I'm a major credit card falsifier!

We have to move beyond this petty shit...

this role playing.

So little by little I cram As much smoke into this head here

For it to never forget That even on Tuesday afternoons

It's worth taking a break Lie out under the sun

The sun burns And we've got to walk on grapes

And act like a geisha and serve

And be like a samurai Chopping off heads

Something has got to fall, bleed With fire bursting out of our chest

You've got to feel Like you've got wings

Brown nose Stick your finger up my ass, shit!

Burn! Ball and chain! Fuck!

- You didn't watch our show? - It's over?

I'm so jealous of you, this bit about blanking out your memory.

Because I can't. There's a bunch of things I remember:

a girlfriend I used to have of going to school with my dad...

I remember...

Only those who've lived alone Know about love and longing

I once had this terrible toothache.

I was trying to be who I am today:

nobody!

But the pain would come and go, come and go, everyday.

You can imagine what I did.

Where are you getting at with this?

I'm in no mood to be guru today!

If you get used to this, what's it going to be like when I leave?

I couldn't give a shit. I remember the day I met you.

I don't want to!

- Remember what I told you that day? - Yeah.

So...

The excess road...

leads to the palace of wisdom.

Through sacred drunkenness we affirm out methods.

I feel like...

something good is going to happen.

I think it's death.

Who are you?

MARCELO LIMIRE BORN 16/06/78-WILL DIE 12/02/09

ALINE LEITE BORN 11/09/72-WILL DIE 12/02/09

EDUARDO MATIAS FINZI - WILL DIE WITHOUT FORGIVING HIS FATHER

LUCENE LINS COUTO - BORN 06/17/58 WILL DIE WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING

ARIANE SCHIMER-BORN 06/22/78 WILL DIE IN 5 WEEKS

And dream.

Let me go, I'm calm. Let me go.

Let me go!

Dad! Let me go!

Let me go!

Get off me! Who do you think you are?

Liz...

Liz...

"Dear stranger...

it may seem strange getting this letter.

I chose your address out of the blue.

I opened a phone book and threw a piece of gum.

It landed on your address.

The other day I broke a bottle of vodka...

and saw the small pieces of glass shattering in the air.

I wanted to be one of those pieces.

I think I've managed to be it today.

I've never felt so strange.

It must be happiness.

I'm a conceptionist.

I can't really explain what that is. Maybe one day you'll find out.

But I'm sure you always wished you were one.

When you didn't have any money to pay your credit card...

or you were bored to death.

Maybe nature itself will make you a conceptionist...

through an illness which kills you little by little or panic.

I decided today to go back to my conceptionist friends.

You probably don't understand any of this at all.

Good luck for you and me both."

Hi.

This girl lives here?

Who doesn't?

Nice.

CONCEPTIONIST REPUBLIC PRESENTS Schizophrenia isn't a disease.

A CONCEPTIONIST FILM BY AN UNKNOWN AUTHOR

It's an art form!

- Death to the ego! - Death to the ego!

Number 2!

And how did you wind up here?

I met some people, my friends, who brought me here.

I woke up here. What's up?

As a conceptionist, what have you been?

Everything.

Everything is a very common answer among conceptionists.

I wasn't anything!

Do conceptionists have problems remembering things?

We've abolished fucking memory.

I don't have any memory, I'm conscious.

Conscious is what I have.

Death to conscious!

The State is our enemy!

Why do conceptionists get angry?

We sometimes get mad, sometimes we smile...

sometimes we make love.

Nobody wants to be a maid today and clean up this mess?

Your mother!

EVERYTHING THAT HAS BEEN SEEN SHOULD NOW BE FORGOTTEN

ARTICLE 10 OF THE CONCEPTIONIST MANIFEST

Hello.

I'd like to talk to Mr. Luis Henrique Arrais...

at the Police Editorial Section, please.

I'm his friend.

Hello, Mr. Lu�s Henrique?

This is an acquaintance of yours speaking.

I'd prefer not to tell you my name.

I think I've got something here that you'd be interested in, Mr. Luis.

I couldn't say if X ratted on us, but...

Who cares? Fuck it.

- How nice you all arrived in time. - In time for what?

I don't know how well-informed you all are...

but your daughter...

is part of an underground organization.

They are involved with drugs, theft, fraud...

deceit...

indecent exposure.

It has remained for me to inform you...

so that you find a way to get her out of there.

You are...

an important man and you know what happens if she's caught, right?

What's funny is that we never had any expectations.

Especially because the "underground organization"...

must have lasted some three months.

I can't sleep anymore.

I can't fall asleep anymore!

Fuck you!

It's none of my business, damn it!

See if you can fix it with your...

Nazi-fucking-Buddhist way of being!

Alex?

A young bourgeois man...

who can't take his little trip today. What can I do? Nothing.

There's nothing I can do. It's not my problem.

Take a trip, Barbie, today. Have a nice trip.

The superintendent came here yesterday.

I don't know how many checks I've bounced in two months!

My house has turned into a motel full of people I don't know.

I get calls from God knows who, letters from fuck all...

and I'm not having fun anymore. A real drag.

Watch your mouth because people believe in what you say!

There's this phrase I think is great:

"There are really beautiful things...

there is transcendence...

things that nothing banal...

concrete, physical, can destroy." Isn't it great?

Write a book. It'll sell like crazy.

Fuck you.

Fuck you, baby.

Here we go! Reality!

- Liz, it's all settled. - "My dear stranger...

I am writing you again, and you are now a different person.

This is the truth. And when it hits, it hits you like a thief...

when you least expect it."

Don't make a scene. You're coming with us, all right?

Where are you going? Liz?

Alex!

Alex! Let's go, Alex!

You just got here.

I'll explain things later. We've got to go.

No, this is my house, full of naked people, it's nice here.

Don't trip on me now. Let's go.

I've missed something, Liz. There was a party.

We are all machines!

Did he fall?

Alex? Alex?

I think the time has come, huh? The time has come!

It's over. Over.

You hear? And it's better that way.

How'd you let this happen?

It's over!

You're all going to have...

to be conceptionists for real now.

Alex...

it's over.

Did you see the cops uniform? Weird, man!

I don't know what you mean.

You're all being chased by the cops? The cops looking for you?

- Alex? Wake up. - Yeah.

- You are? - Yeah.

You're going to have to know how to hide.

How to be a conceptionist!

Listen here!

Only the individual can solve his conflicts.

Only the individual.

Stick it up his ass! Death to the ego!

...false credit cards, besides drugs.

Right now, members of the Special Operations department...

are rounding up all the so called conceptionists...

I don't think we could classify it as some kind of movement.

All the members of the group were naked when the police...

Some kind of bad trip...

I think that deep down they were looking to be punished.

The irony of it all is that when we finally became famous...

we weren't able to enjoy it.

We had to move to quiet places, turn out our lights at night...

couldn't stay more than two nights in the same place.

We'd hide in any rat hole.

Life wasn't easy, but then Alex had a great idea.

They wanted a reason for us to do what we did.

So we made some up and sold them on TV.

Some TV channels paid us 5 grand. You'd expect us to keep quiet?

"Exclusive interview with fugitive" People would start coming in...

they'd stick around...

the house would get packed, and we didn't want to know...

about their past, identity, future, nothing like that.

We weren't worried about that. Some days, the place was empty.

Could you tell me what this is all about?

Five different ID's, five different names...

not to mention two passports with two different names.

You going to make a call?

No, I'm waiting for the machines to give me authorization.

After jail, they took me to an asylum and I never saw any of them again.

I think I saw X once.

We are...

We are going to be the man...

we promised.

We promised to be the man...

to stand up to the man.

Who is going to stand up to the giant of hunger...

I even tried to call him over, but I couldn't find my mouth.

ANOTHER CONCEPTIONIST SPILLS THE BEANS

Don't give me any of this shit...

about Bras�lia, because Bras�lia, you've got to live here to know.

Don't try to tell me how good it is here.

Hi.

How are you?

Do you remember me? No?

I finally managed to find your sister.

My sister?

Where have you been all this time?

Dad is back home, feeling better.

- He remembers you once in a while. - You're all set to go now.

After two months, nobody talked about us anymore.

And menial jobs turned out to be the best hiding place.

I did all sorts of edifying work.

I made ridiculously small wages which lasted around a week.

And I would spend it all on sushi or some shitty rave.

As for Liz and Alex, the love birds, everything was much better.

I bumped into Liz one day.

She seemed happy to see me.

What have you been doing?

I've been a singer, waitress...

supermarket cashier...

fixed credit card machines.

I took her over to my dingy place.

I've got to go.

What's your name again?

Oh, I forgot to tell you something about the day Liz came over.

I saw X this morning.

Really?

He was buying something at the supermarket.

That it?

Of course not.

He gave me this bullshit about guilt that made me want to run.

But now he's disappeared again.

"Dear stranger...

I write to you again and you are now another person, like I am.

You probably don't understand anything about all this.

I think I made it today!

I am now a real conceptionist."

Everything okay?

I'm going to the restroom.

Hi. The girl who was here with you asked me to give you this note.

"YOU HAVE JUST BEEN DECEIVED BY A CONCEPTIONIST"

Ariane! Ariane! Please.

Ariane!

Your father has had another stroke, we gotta take him to the hospital.

Liz had dumped me...

and I decided to be another person. Somebody else again.

Take me away.

Get me out of here.

You okay?

After that day, I took Ariane to the hospital...

I left her at the door, I moved away and never saw anyone ever again.

Nobody ever saw me again.

Anything else you'd like to know?

Lino?

Jesus, I thought you had died.

What's wrong?

I need your help.

With what?

What does "positive" mean?

Jesus, this is great news!

We can do everything right this time.

I just wanted you to come with me.

It's scheduled for today.

Yeah?

- Fill it up, please. - Credit card payment inside.

Fifty, please.

That girl asked me to give you this note.

Son-of-a-bitch!

- Good afternoon. - Good afternoon.

Car documents and ID, please.

Just a second.

You can imagine the rest.

Of course I had to put on a show.

I had memorized everything X used to say.

I think we've got to jump into the flame...

be the flame.

I don't want anything for myself. I want everything.

Everything, everything, everything.

- It's over, over, right? - Over 1,000 falsified checks.

Objection!

I wanna live this, not be wrapped up in this shroud.

- I'm glad it's over! - Where did you get the drugs?

I maintain that the truth is a land without roads.

What are you so afraid of?

Because I am a threat to everything that is not essential?

The truth...

is a land without roads.

You can't reach it through religion...

nor laws.

There are things that nothing physical or banal can destroy.

Only the individual can solve their own conflicts.

This is no joke here. Limit yourself to answering the question:

Where did you get the drugs?

If this weren't about drugs, but about the legalization of guns...

I wouldn't be here, Your Honor!

This half-ass court is not competent enough to judge me.

Sit down. Respect the court.

Sit down.

One thousand falsified checks?

I got off with 14 years.

I think I've said everything I had to say.

No, I actually haven't. It's just that I'm unable to say the rest.

I can't say my name.

Not because of some conceptionist idea.

I can't make any sense out of this and I'm a little tired, too.

Sometimes, lying on the ground, I manage to be free.

Free of everything, including my memories and imagination.

It's useless to think about my first day of freedom.

I'll look at my hand as if for the first time.

At the street as if it was the first time.

Will I get my apartment back?

Oh, Alex...

If I do, maybe we'll...

So many people I can't even remember their names.

The other day, Liz sent me a tape.

X and Alex...

we never were and will never stop being conceptionists.

Liz...

Liz...

When I get out of here, it'll really be the first time I ever see her.

With her kid!

This is all one day.

I'll be able to disappear without dying.

Be nobody.

One day!

FOR JO�O GABRIEL

Until then, I'll just stick around here.

Meanwhile...

you...

can all just call me X.

Death to the Ego!