Quilombo

This historical saga is a stirring fusion of folklore, political impact and dynamic story-telling, realized in vibrant tropical colors and set to the pulsing beat of Gilberto Gil’s musical score.

After the slave revolt of 1641, groups of enslaved Black Brazilians escaped to mountainous jungle strongholds where they formed self-governing communities in a region dubbed “Quilombo dos Palmares,” and considered by historians to be “undoubtedly the largest fugitive community to have existed in Brazil.” The people there developed a society and government that derived from a range of Central African sociopolitical models, and a reflection of the diverse ethnic origins of its inhabitants.

This 1984 film directed by Carlos Diegues—who previously directed a similar film, which was shelved for nearly a decade due to the 1964 military coup—is the chronicle of the most famous of these communities which flourished for several decades under the reign of the legendary chieftain Ganga Zumba.

*Screened in Portuguese with English-language subtitles.*