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Quilombo

  • 19841984
  • 1h 54m
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
462
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
85,652
9,585
Quilombo (1984)
Drama
Palmares is a 17th-century quilombo, a settlement of escaped slaves in northeast Brazil. In 1650, plantation slaves revolt and head for the mountains where they find others led by the aged s... Read allPalmares is a 17th-century quilombo, a settlement of escaped slaves in northeast Brazil. In 1650, plantation slaves revolt and head for the mountains where they find others led by the aged seer, Acotirene. She anoints one who becomes Ganga Zumba, a legendary king. For years, his ... Read allPalmares is a 17th-century quilombo, a settlement of escaped slaves in northeast Brazil. In 1650, plantation slaves revolt and head for the mountains where they find others led by the aged seer, Acotirene. She anoints one who becomes Ganga Zumba, a legendary king. For years, his warriors hold off Portuguese raiders; then he agrees to leave the mountains in exchange fo... Read all
IMDb RATING
6.4/10
462
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
85,652
9,585
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Carlos Diegues
    • Writers
      • Carlos Diegues
      • João Felicio dos Santos(novel "Ganga Zumba")
      • Décio Freitas(book "Palmares, a Guerra dos Escravos")
    • Stars
      • Bené Batista
      • Jonas Bloch
      • Zózimo Bulbul
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Carlos Diegues
    • Writers
      • Carlos Diegues
      • João Felicio dos Santos(novel "Ganga Zumba")
      • Décio Freitas(book "Palmares, a Guerra dos Escravos")
    • Stars
      • Bené Batista
      • Jonas Bloch
      • Zózimo Bulbul
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 5User reviews
    • 5Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
    • Awards
      • 1 nomination

    Photos14

    Quilombo (1984)
    Quilombo (1984)
    Zezé Motta in Quilombo (1984)
    Vera Fischer in Quilombo (1984)
    Quilombo (1984)
    Quilombo (1984)
    Zezé Motta in Quilombo (1984)
    Quilombo (1984)
    Quilombo (1984)
    Quilombo (1984)
    Quilombo (1984)
    Quilombo (1984)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Bené Batista
    • Ibualama…
    Jonas Bloch
    Jonas Bloch
    • Samuel
    Zózimo Bulbul
    • Stone Man
    Emmanuel Cavalcanti
    • Lins
    Arduíno Colassanti
    • Blaer
    Jorge Coutinho
    • Salé
    Babaú da Mangueira
    Roberto de Cleto
    • Father Mello
    Aniceto do Império
    Maurício do Valle
    • Dominingos Jorge Velho
    Chico Díaz
    Chico Díaz
    • Anunciação
    Sabrina Fidalgo
    Sabrina Fidalgo
    Daniel Filho
    Daniel Filho
    • Fernão Carrilho
    Jorge Fino
    • Iabu
    Vera Fischer
    Vera Fischer
    • Ana de Ferro
    Léa Garcia
    Milton Gonçalves
    Milton Gonçalves
    • Dying slave
    Thiago Justino
    • Tité
    • Director
      • Carlos Diegues
    • Writers
      • Carlos Diegues
      • João Felicio dos Santos(novel "Ganga Zumba")
      • Décio Freitas(book "Palmares, a Guerra dos Escravos")
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Camila Pitanga's debut.
    • Goofs
      (at around 1h52:07) Towards the end of the film, Zumbi tells Camuanga that there is breadfruit nearby. Impossible: this scene takes place in 1694, but breadfruit was not introduced to the New World (from Polynesia, by Capt. Bligh) until nearly a century later, in 1791.
    • Connections
      Featured in Pressed, Ripped Apart (2019)

    User reviews5

    Review
    Review
    Top review
    8/10
    The John Ford of Brazil? Perhaps...
    This is a very good film that tries to do something deceptively difficult. As a result, it may tend to be judged wanting by those looking for an historical recreation of a period not much known outside Brazil.

    Carlos Diegues tries to convey something of the roots of the cultural collision that is Brazil. Think of it: you are a slave that has freed themselves from your bondage, but home is thousands of miles away, and no serious possibility of return exists. The choice is to make a new life out of what is before you, in the context of your belief systems, music and language that belong to the inaccessible mother country. What do you do? In the backwoods, the slave colony or Quilombo called Palmares is something between myth and promise.

    Rather than focus on the practical struggles and a realist approach, Diegues takes a theatrical, even operatic approach. One reviewer dismissed the music, which is by Gilberto Gil, one of Brazil's greatest pop musicians, and a major force in the defining of afrobrazilian identity in Brazil since the sixties, not to mention Brazil's Minister of Culture as of this writing, calling it cheesy disco. It's true that to anyone who comes to this movie without any awareness of Brazilian attitudes to culture, and particularly the eclecticism of the tropicalia movement that Gil helped form, the anachronism of the terrific samba might seem mystifying. But it is worth saying that the rock and disco soundtrack of A Knight's Tale, led no-one to assume that the director was naive. Here, Brazil anticipates that cleverness by a decade, and uses it to make a point about the continuity and importance of African rhythm in Brazilian culture.

    The film has also to be seen in the context of the brutal dictatorship that ruled Brazil until 1985, just one year after the film was made: the obvious commentary on the regime, and the danger of open criticism necessitated the theatricality and probably discouraged realism as a narrative approach in a film that tells the story of violent and brutal masters, and people who want only to be free.

    Many cultures find it hard to accept that other cultures share sophistication with them, and in part this movie as about creating a history of the transfer of black African culture from Africa to the Americas. This in not presented as a primitive or 'atavistic' enterprise, but as an enormously inventive and creative period. The institution of slavery, which lasted longer in Brazil than most colonies, created myths of inferiority that are too familiar, and still lead too often to assumptions about black culture. This movie is about stating the opposite. Of course, life in the wild west wasn't really the way John Ford depicted it, and this is in the same spirit of mythologizing and celebrating, of inventing a past to replace the other fictions that also pass for history.

    The depictions of the interaction of the Orixas with the protagonists is startling, as is the appearance of the dead. Watch for the great sequence when Xango first is seen to enter Ganga Zumbi, a sequence with overtones of the modern practice of Candomblé, Brazil's second religion, and the syncretic creation of the freed afrobrazilians. The use of colour, both in the body painting and sets, and the lighting is clever, beautiful and disciplined, and conveys something important about the difference in consciousness of the Portuguese masters and their oppressed slaves. Diegues manages to move smoothly from near-realism to utter artifice throughout, but most wonderfully in these sequences.

    That said, and without softening the recommendation, this film is a product of its time and place. It just happens to be a time and place not tied to the banal conventions that mainstream film often imposes.
    helpful•10
    1
    • dan-1583
    • Jan 16, 2006

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 28, 1986 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • Brazil
      • France
    • Language
      • Portuguese
    • Production companies
      • CDK
      • Embrafilme
      • Gaumont
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 54 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Mono

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