Glauber Rocha - Black God White Devil

Widely considered to be the greatest Brazilian film of all time, Black God, White Devil (Deus e O Diabo Na Terra Do Sol) influenced such major filmmakers as Martin Scorsese and Sergio Leone and is Glauber Rocha’s finest and most moving work.

An epic and moving work, Black God, White Devil blends mysticism, religion, and popular culture, into a powerful, bleak and cruel epic, that unashamedly expresses its frustration with many of the major institutions of Brazilian life – government, Church and corrupt landowners.

Set in the 1940s, the picture follows Manuel, who kills his employer after he tries to cheat him of his wages. From then on Manuel and his wife, Rosa, move around the country, robbing and killing as they go, listening to the words of religious mystics and self-proclaimed saints as try to find their place in a ruthless land of corruption, anguish and violence.

What makes this film all the more remarkable is the fact that director Glauber Rocha was only 25 years old when he wrote and began filming this masterwork, a film which cries out for man to determine his own path. The picture was nominated for the 1964 Golden Palm award at the Cannes Film Festival and is considered to be a seminal piece of the Brazilian Cinema Novo movement.

The most beautiful thing I have seen in more than a decade, filled with savage poetry Louis Bunuel

The key of Brazil's cinema novo Time Out

Dynamic visual feast Variety

A film of real beauty Le Monde

Masterpiece The Guardian




SPECIFICATIONS

DVD9 PAL / Dolby Digital / All regions / Black & White
Running Time 120 mins
Rated 18
Brazilian Portuguese with English subtitles
Licensed from Grupo Novo De Cinema E TV