Quilombo

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.

When you think of Brazil, the images that come to your mind are probably the Amazon, Christ the Redeemer and the favelas. What you might not know is the history of slavery in Brazil. As in the United States, it was one of the most horrendous institutions in history, with kidnapped Africans worked to death on plantations.

No surprise that the enslaved people resisted. Many of them fled the plantations and formed their own communities, called quilombos. Carlos Diegues's "Quilombo" is about one of these in particular, called Palmares. This group of people did what they could to survive, and also made efforts to keep their heritage alive, cut off though they were from Africa. But the Portuguese weren't going to let them get away so easily.

At the very least, this movie will likely be an introduction to a largely forgotten part of history. I recommend it both for this, and for focus on how the quilombolas embrace their African heritage (dance, attire, etc). Check it out.

This is a relatively close historical depiction of the resistance of the displaced Africans, mostly from Angola, to Brazil for use as slaves for the Portuguese. Diegues maintains historical accuracy of the quilombo(kilombo) called Palmares and the life the escaped Africans led and their struggle to lead that life far from the oppressive Portuguese. This is one of the few films which tells the story of African people actively resisting European slavers. Quilombo also follows the life of Zumbi, the death of Ganga Zumba,the initial leader of Palmares and Zumbi's rise to become the eventual leader of Palmares. For anyone looking at history and its true representation in film, this is a good start. It plays close to the vest in historical authenticity.

Are you like me, where you get to a point and the best gift someone can give you is to recommend an album, book or movie?

Well recommending this was my gift this year from one of my kids, and I'm grateful for it.

At the outset, I immediately recognized Gilberto Gil's voice, and as my son predicted the music here serves as one significant delight - granted some of that 80's electric bass fusion was a little tricky for my ears.

Going in, I knew nothing of the specifics to Brazilian history circa the 1600's and slave trade. I knew a little more about Vodoun characters, and it was interesting to see the shadows of Shango and Ogun appear here, and led by a Zumbi defying death no less.

The film has the elements of rebels/resistance combined with feels like a Carneval-esque celebration between battle scenes. My son came across it as part of a Surreal Films class, but the professor/he point out that is far more in the magical realism realm. There are points where tribal leaders assemble in color and strike poses that reminded us of a Japanese anime. Power Rangers precursors?

Granted the film is serious at its heart - fight for dignity and freedom is important, and comes with a horrific loss of life through-out - there is a spirit of celebration, and elements just this side of magic, that make it an exhilarating watch albeit dated in cinematic technique.

Enjoy it for the songs and costume design (could have spent all 600 characters on that alone), and for the fact that in Brazil, the US and beyond we are still bending towards a more just if not more magical world.

A very fun, vibrant, exciting, and moving tale of escaped slaves setting up their own community. Like all of Diegues films, it's not meant to be precisely accurate - and if you're hoping for a Hollywood budget and historical verisimilitude you won't find them here. What you will find is a passion for film making, and a passion for a great story, and some joyful, exuberant acting. The use of music is excellent, the sounds chosen to evoke the present. The use of color is wonderful, like watching a Mardi gras parade in Rio. The camera work is fluid and the framing busy yet focused. The sort of film you want to watch immediately again to catch all the action in the frame you didn't see the first go through.