Original subtitles

Look at this, Stella, someone sent us their lunch.

Not your lunch.

Dear Red Shoes, wanna stop

feelin' sorry for yourself?

Yeah.

You should take a leaf from my grandmother's book.

We got a letter from her at Christmas

saying she missed us desperately.

The next thing I knew I was taking a leave of absence

from work and I was on a plane to Rio.

The last few years of my life

had been completely regimented.

Work, school, work, work.

On the way to see my grandmother

I did something I hadn't done.

I wrote in my diary.

Just let my mind drift.

It'd been so long since I fantasized about anything.

Thoughts of endless nights.

Thoughts of men.

Thoughts of a man.

A stranger.

Thoughts of surrender.

Thoughts of abandon.

Of a night of complete and utter abandon.

Any apprehensions I had about actually taking

a little time off for myself were completely

dispelled the moment I saw my grandmother.

My grandmother with her heart full

of love and her beautiful smile.

To her, every day was a miracle.

80 going on 35.

So filled with spirit.

I couldn't get enough of her.

On New Year's Eve she insisted that we take her

to the beach to join the rest of Brazil

making their annual offering to Iemanja,

the goddess of the sea.

When my grandmother realized I hadn't brought

an offering for Iemania, she commandeered my purse.

Finding nothing appropriate in it,

she ripped out a few of the pages

from my diary and sealed them in a plastic bag.

I protested, but it did no good.

"A diary" she shouted.

"It's a New Year, you don't need it anymore.

"What better to give Iemanja than your secrets?

"Give Iemanja your secret" she said.

"And if she sees fit all your dreams will come true."

They say if Iemanja keeps your offering,

if it drifts out to sea, your dreams will come true.

But if it returns to the shore,

you're in for a whole year of bad luck.

If my grandmother only knew

the secret she had offered to Iemania.

If she only knew.

Anyway to make a long story short,

come the end of February, Lent,

the full moon, the beginning of Carnival.

Yep, you guessed it, I was still in Rio.

- I found it!

I found my costume.

My carnival costume.

Come.

You are really like a flower.

Your lips are the shape of mine.

You have my skin, my breasts, my stomach.

And beneath them just under the surface you have my spirit.

Here.

Tonight you are going to dance Carnival.

- Are you okay?

Iemania?

I don't understand.

Can anyone help me, please?

Can anyone speak English here?

I don't understand what you're saying, Iemanja.

Iemanja I don't understand.

Somebody, please.

Does somebody speak English?

- Yes?

Yes, I speak English.

- Yes. - Can I help you?

- Yes, I don't speak Portuguese.

Can you ask him what, he's trying to say?

- He says he's sorry,

but he can't give you what Iemanja asked him to give you.

He says Iemanja told him what you want,

but he says, he can't do it.

He says he can't believe what his friend

translated from the words you wrote.

- Where did you find it?

- He said too much Iemania, that you're too beautiful.

- That's bullshit!

Ask him where he found my diary.

- He says you're too beautiful

and he's ashamed to do what you want.

He says for him slow is better.

To kiss your thigh is better.

To kiss the back of your neck.

Abandon comes slowly.

Women need time to lose control.

He says if something is in your head and you write it down

then you want it, even if you're not sure, you want it.

He says, look around.

He says Carnival is a way to let your fantasies free

and Carnival is an excuse for people

to do what they're not supposed to do.

How could I ever explain

what happened to my grandmother?

He'd been swimming and seen my offering

laying on the floor of the ocean?

I should have known I wouldn't have to explain.

The moment my grandmother saw me, I could see in her eyes

that she knew exactly what had happened.

- I saw your ad while I was back in L.A.,

packing to move permanently to Brazil.

I thought that it might help you make sense

out of whatever you're trying to make sense out of.

What I'm trying to say is there is such a thing as magic.

What do you think of that?

Come on.