Caetano Veloso’s life as a political prisoner will be headed to the big screen…

The documentary about the 78-year-old Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist, Narcissus Off Duty, will premiere on Monday, September 7 at the Venice Film Festival.

In the film, directed by Renato Terra and Ricardo Calil, the multiple Grammy winner recounts his incarceration as a political prisoner in great detail and performs songs that sprung forth from this painful experience.

In 1968, during Brazil’s military dictatorship, Veloso – who the preceding year had been among the founders of the revolutionary Tropicalia artistic movement – was arrested on trumped up charges.

Veloso was taken from his Sao Paulo home to Rio de Janeiro, where he was placed in solitary confinement for one week and held behind bars for 54 days.

“I have a very clear memory of all things that happened that day, and in those months,” says Veloso of the time. “In fact I had written about it in my book Tropical Truth. There is a chapter in the book that tells the whole story. My manager, who is also my wife (Paula Lavigne), thought we should now do that on film. She invited a couple of directors who had done a wonderful work about a music festival…We were all going to do a complete documentary with many interviews and set locations, and things. But they started by interviewing me. When the interview – that we did in two sessions – ended, they decided that that would be enough.

The doc is co-produced by Veloso’s wife and manager Lavigne’s Uns Producoes with Walter Salles’ VideoFilmes. Globoplay has acquired rights for streaming in Brazil.