Focus : Chico and the Land : RAIN FOREST ACTIVIST MENDES IS THE SUBJECT OF HBO’S ‘THE BURNING SEASON’

Perhaps the “B” in HBO should stand for “Biography.” During the last few years, the cable network has had great success with its award-winning biographical films--”The Josephine Baker Story,” “Stalin” and “Citizen Cohn,” among them.

Home Box Office’s latest subject is Brazilian activist Chico Mendes, who was murdered in 1988 trying to save the Amazon rain forest from destruction by encroaching cattle ranchers.

“The Burning Season,” which premieres Saturday, is directed by John Frankenheimer (“Seven Days in May”) and features a primarily all-Latino cast: Raul Julia as Mendes; Edward James Olmos as Rural Worker’s leader Wilson Pinheiro; Sonia Braga as academician Regina De Carvalho, and Thomas Milan as the brutal cattleman Darli Alves. Nigel Havers also stars as British documentary maker Steven Kay.

“The Burning Season” was shot earlier this year in the remote Mexican jungle town of Compoapan in the state of Veracruz. The town was chosen for its similarity to Mendes’ home of Xapuri. It was an arduous shoot.

“In 40 years of doing this I never had anything more difficult,” says Frankenheimer.

“It was very hot,” adds Julia. “Up to 107 degrees and sometimes we were working indoors without air conditioning, so it got very hot and outside it got very hot, too. You had to make an extra effort to keep up your energy.”

Julia, Frankenheimer explains, was the first choice to play Mendes. “I think he is just a wonderful actor,” he says. “I think he is a compassionate guy. I don’t see anybody else playing that part.”

To prepare for his role, Juila watched documentary footage of Mendes. He also met with Andrew Revkin, who wrote the book “The Burning Season,” on which the film is partially based.

“There is a book of Chico’s words, all the things that he said throughout his life--that was helpful, too,” Julia says. “Of course, the script (by Ron Hutchinson, Michael Tolkin and William Mastrosimone) was well-written and we kept working on it all the time to make it more specific.”

While playing Mendes, Julia says, he made a conscious effort not to imitate his “outward” look or personality. “I concentrate on the essence,” Julia explains. “I try to capture the essence of the person--in Chico’s case, his commitment, how he was. I don’t even know how to put it into words. I just look at the person and try to capture something that is wordless. I make it myself. I come from myself being in that situation, and being kind of the essential person that he was, something that I feel about him.

“It was a very deep commitment to his people and what he believed in, to the point of not being able to leave and facing death, which is something he knew would certainly come.”

Frankenheimer thought it was “terribly important” to have Olmos play Pinheiro, a major influence on Mendes’ life, who was gunned down at the union hall in 1980.

“He is such a great actor, and also Wilson Pinheiro is such a charismatic guy,” Frankenheimer says. “You have to have somebody who is a charismatic person playing him.”

“I was glad I was given the opportunity because I think Wilson Pinheiro is a very important part of this whole chemistry,” Olmos says. “He was the founder of the rubber tappers’ union. He formulated it, started it and taught Chico how to do it. He was a very, very strong and eloquent speaker. He was a much more eloquent speaker than Chico was and Chico ended up being a very good speaker.”

Frankenheimer and Julia, Olmos recalls, called him about participating in the film. “They told me it was a minor role, but it was very pivotal to the story. I told them all that matters to me is that the piece, the story line itself, be worth putting your time into it. I’d play anything from the doorstop to the lead, so it doesn’t matter. I’m very grateful that they made it and that people were willing to invest the amounts of money that they did so this project would come to life. I think it’s the kind of story that people have to see. Not only is it entertaining, it is substantial to our humanness.”

“The goal of this film,” Julia says, “is to bring more awareness of the rain forest to the American people.”

Revkin, who was on the set for five days, believes the film captures the real story. “They are remarkably true to the real elements and what was going on in the Amazon in the 44 years of Chico’s life,” especially the fact that the union’s struggle “started out as a land-rights issue and that Chico later came to this meeting of the minds with the environmentalists.”

Though he’s impressed with the cast, Revkin acknowledges he had to put the physical appearances of the real people out of his head.

“Chico was a rather portly, chunky guy who liked to show off his pot belly,” Revkin says. “Raul is very thin, but has given an amazing performance. Everything about the performance is right on point.

“Edward Olmos, I think, is incredible as Pinheiro, a very powerful guy who didn’t give any quarter. The original Pinheiro was like 6 foot 4 and very dark-skinned. It’s not a good match physically, but a great match in terms of performance. As Darli, Thomas Milan, I thought, was really astonishing. It’s really kind of scary--he has the same hissing delivery.”

“The Burning Season” premieres Saturday at 8 p.m. on HBO.