Black God, White Devil

Manuel flees into the sertão with his wife Rosa after having attacked his coronel. They join up with the mystical Sebastião, who predicts an imminent world reversal. The saint and his followers are massacred by Antonio das Mortes, hired by the fazendeiros to do the job. Manuel and Rosa, the sole survivors, meet a group who escaped a band of cangaceiros whose lieutenant, Corisco, aims to ravage the sertão with fire and the sword.

Powerful and elusive at the same time, this key work of the «Cinema Novo» brims with popular culture, baroque tradition, as well as the influences of a mystical and violent religiosity. The concern of the directors, who over the past agitated years have put their art at the service of the oppressed, is to arouse an awareness of and to question class injustice. By staging the eternal conflict between God and the devil, Glauber Rocha draws the portrait of the false hopes that religion or revolutionaries wishing to take power lay before the people; his way of translating the great social and cultural preoccupations of the time.

trigon-film dvd-edition 93
Language OV brazilian Subtitles deutsch, français
Length 125 min. Screen 1:1.33 - 4/3 PAL, b/w Sound DSD FSK 16 Region code All regions