What actually pissed off the dictatorship’s censorship bureau was Onda Nova’s laidback attitude towards queerness. “There’s a whole women’s football team, and they talk about everything so naturally,” explains Martins. “They talk about abortion, they have sex freely, there’s queerness in the film, and there are football players cross-dressing. That would be unthinkable even today because of commercial contracts. Basically, [censors] couldn’t just cut one thing or another, so they banned the whole film.” Martins and his co-director underwent the months-long process of appealing the censorship; a few months into this fight, he says, “pornographic films were liberated in Brazil.” By the time Onda Nova had been freed, the film’s momentum was dead. “When the film was finally released, the theatrical market had changed completely. You had hardcore porn, or you had films with no sex at all. Films like Onda Nova are seen as soft porn, so that’s why it flopped.”
Things have changed exponentially since the ‘80s, and Onda Nova is enjoying a new, international fanbase. Martins is packing to fly to London as we speak, and he has “great expectations – I think England has more or less the same relationship with football as Brazil. People play it because they like it, not just because they see it as a possible profession.” Both BFI Flare film screenings are sold out, indicating a big queer fanbase, too. It’s not hard to see why: the humour is tongue-in-cheek, and the acting is gloriously camp – Lilli’s mother in particular is at her pearl-clutching best, screaming at her daughter: “You ungrateful lesbian!”
Debates around inclusive football – specifically trans inclusion – in football continue to rage, but films like Onda Nova strip away the prejudice and celebrate the beautiful game as a hub for community-building, queer joy, and an industry in which women can excel, if they’re given fair access and opportunities. “I can even say,” whispers Martins with a grin, “that the women’s Brazilian football team is better than the men’s.”
