Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos (Salustiano)

From Umbuzeiro in Paraíba, Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos has been transforming himself into the clown Xuxu for 23 years, a character that is the result of his passion for the circus and one of the reasons that led Walter Salles to invite him to play the circus performer Salustiano in Behind the Sun. His talent as a theater director in Paraíba became nationally known at the beginning of the 1990s, when his production of Vau da Sarapalha, an adaptation of a short by Guimarães Rosa, traveled throughout Brazil winning over critics and the public. Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos debuted as a film actor playing the bandit Lampião in Perfumed Ball, by Lírio Ferreira and Paulo Caldas (1997). In 1999 he played one of the principal roles in Midnight/The First Day by Daniela Thomas and Walter Salles, for which he was chosen Best Actor by the São Paulo Art Critics Association. Another standout role in film came in Me You Them, by Andrucha Waddington, selected to be shown at Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000.