image001                                                                UNC-CH and Duke Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Video Collection/Outreach Office

                                                Contact Information: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

                                                3200 FedEx Global Education Center

                                                Phone: (919) 843-8888          Fax: (919) 962-0398

                                                Email: LA_films@unc.edu

 

 

DEUS E O DIABO NA TERRRA DO SOL

 (Black God, White Devil)

 

102 minutes

Directed by: Glauber Rocha

 

Overview:

This is a Story of the social movement growing out f the poverty and misery of the dry back lands in northeast Brazil.  It is a dark and allegorical sketch of the human condition in the drought- and tradition- ravaged region.  When a landowner, Colonel Moraes, beats cowboy Manoel for refusing to take blame for losing four head of cattle, Manoel turns on the colonel and kills him.  On the run, Manoel and his wife, Rosa, join a band of followers of Sebatião, a black messiah who wanders through the backlands (sertão) claiming that only those loyal to him will be spared on Judgement Day.  In the meantime, area powerbrokers (including a priest and a landlord) hire and assassin, Antonio das Mortes, to kill the heretic Sebastião and his fanatical followers.  Manoel and Rosa manage to survive the massacre to tell the tale and join a band of outlaws led by Corisco, a survivor of a famed group of bandits once led by Lampião.  Antonio das Mortes is then hired to kill Coirana and his gang.  He carries out his order but lets Manoel and Rosa escape once again.  The film ends with a sweeping shot of the couple running toward the ocean.  Rosa falls, but Manoel makes it to the shore where, as the soundtrack narrates, “sea and sertão are one and the same; because earth belongs to man and not to God and the Devil”

 

Mixing European and African folklore and religion, the film reveals much about the culture on the northeast.  Nature, in the form of earth, sun, and sky, is an ever present force.  The stark class relations of the region are laid bare in the conflict between Manoel and various authorities.  The film poses many questions related to moral and religious value systems, the antagonism of state and agencies toward nonconformity, and the eternal hope of utopia.  Gender relations are also revealed in the tense relationship between Rosa and Manoel: she follows him on his mad journey, but not uncritically.  Director Rocha added a unique twist to the film, one typical of the times and yet so revolutionary that he was later exiled by the military regime in the 1960s.  Rather than depicting Manoel as a helpless victim, the film shows him becoming gradually empowered, taking responsibility for his actions and, ultimately, arguing that each person must carry his own burden.  Manoel stops searching for saviors and starts relying on himself.

 

Strengths and Weaknesses:

This film has great significance both as one of the foundational films of Brazilian Cinema Novo and as one of the most notable of Glauber Rocha’s works. It is a complex and unusual film that overturns any conventional realist representations of events.  This antirealism is both a part of its strength and importance and a weak point, particularly for audiences not familiar with Rocha’s work.  The film examines in an original way questions of great concern to the northeast and to the poor in general.  For Brazilians and Brazilianists, it is an unusually provocative and visually stunning film.

Overall, this is not an easy film.  It would definitely need an introduction for U.S. audiences.  For nonspecialists, the film can be confusing and boring.  There are sequences of songs that are not translated and there is very little dialogue generally; thus viewers must work hard to understand the narrative and message.  The tape includes many references that would be meaningless to most U.S. viewers.  The Subtitles are poor. 

 

Introducing the Tape:

It should be pointed out that this black-and-white film made in 1964 is considered to be director Glauber Rocha’s masterpiece and a key work in the development of Brazil’s Cinema Novo.  As its presentation is experimental, a U.S. audience would need considerable information about the film’s place in Brazilian film history and its form.  Many of the references to legend, myth, history, and culture are invented by Rocha in imitation of folk-cultural forms and would need to be explained.  An introduction to like in the arid northeast, utopianism, messianism, and Canudos (on which the film is modeled) would be necessary.

 

How to Borrow this Video?

The videos owned by the UNC-Duke Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies are housed in the Outreach Office of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  They are lent free of charge.  For information on films and reservations, please visit http://isa.unc.edu/film/films_main.asp.

 

References:

Ranucci, Karen, ed. A Guide to Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino-Made Film and Video. Lanham, MD. Scarecrow Press. 1998.