Black God, White Devil

After the labourer Manuel kills his tyrannical employer, he flees with his wife Rosa through the barren hinterlands of Brazil’s Sertão. On their journey, they join the mystical preacher Sebastião, who calls for an uprising against the wealthy landowners. But the movement is brutally crushed: following an attack, Manuel and Rosa, the sole survivors, ultimately fall into the hands of the fanatical bandit Corisco.

This restored classic is a cornerstone of «Cinema Novo» and shaped by the influences of violent religiosity. Through the depiction of the relentless conflict between God and the Devil, Glauber Rocha exposes the false hopes that religious fanatics and power-hungry revolutionaries offer the people, revealing the major social and cultural struggles of his time.