Cafundó is a fictional movie, inspired by a real-life character from the Brazilian slave-houses of the 19th century: a cattle driver and former slave bewildered at the transformation of the world and eager to rush headlong into it. The resulting shock leads him to depths of anguish and despair. Defeated, he abandons himself to the arms of inspiration, delirium and illumination, and is finally able to see God! His vision combines the magic of his African roots and the glory of the Jewish-Christian civilization. His mission, he finds out, is to help his fellow human beings. So strong is his belief in his own healing powers that they come true the triumph of the madness of faith! Since his death, in the 1940's, he has become one of the legends that compose the Brazilian soul. To this day we can find his idolized figure in religious goods shops: the old black man known as João de Camargo.
