The representation of the serto and popular religiosity in the movies Black God, White Devil and Central Station

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        The sertão, or the Brazilian backlands, and more specifically, the underdeveloped interior of the North East of the country, is the traditional symbol for poverty and desolation (Hollyman 1983: 118). Both the land and its people were often the focus of literature and other arts in the twentieth century, and what seems to fascinate writers, artists and filmmakers is the extent to which the sertão can be used to represent, in the words of Nicolau Sevcenko, ‘the itinerant, unstable and fluid order which characterizes the most extensive and profound dimensions of Brazilian society’. North Eastern culture has frequently been portrayed by the cultural elite as being a purer or more authentic and therefore more significant form of popular culture than that found along the coastal regions.  According to Jean Franco, ‘the very conservatism of rural communities which made them living links with the past also meant that they became an important source for high culture in its search for the expression of Latin American originality’ (Dennison, Shaw 2004: 207-208). This essay will compare and contrast the representation of the sertão and popular religiosity in the movies Black God, White Devil and Central Station.

        To begin with, sertão in the movie Black God, White Devil is depicted as a land in crisis, shown as violent and violated with its scorched, rough, barren scenery, and its wizened, twisted, prickly flora (Bentes 2003: 124). The movie centres on the story of the cowherd Manuel and his involvement with God (Sebastião) and the Devil (Corisco), and with messanic mysticism and the cangaço (social banditry) (Rocha 1984: 129).  Manuel successively follows these two leaders in an attempt to free himself from the sertão’s poverty and drought. The movie delves into popular imagery, mystic trance, the pure state of rebellion of believers and cangaceiros, thus creating complex models of mise-en-scène and narrative that reveal a world in upheaval (Bentes 2003: 125).

It ends with the apparent fulfillment of the utopian prophecy: the famous image of the sea, which replaces that of the backlands. The movie formulated Brazilian cinema’s most famous utopia: ‘The backlands will return to sea, and the sea will turn into backlands’ (Nagib 2007: 3).  Besides this, the sertão emerges as a counterpoint to the tropical and paradisiacal civilization by the sea. It acts as metaphor for an intolerable situation and an imminent transformation. Social violence is added to geological violence, and ideas of rebellion against the intolerable germinate everywhere. The sertão, the barren and unruly land, with its exploited and destitute characters who have nothing to lose, is ready to undergo radical changes, moving from extreme aridity to extreme exuberance as it becomes the sea, a utopian and mythical place. This movie creates an aesthetic based on the dry cut, nervous framing, overexposure and use of a hand-held camera. It is fragmented narrative which mirrors the cruelty of the sertão. This is Cinema Novo aesthetics, whose purpose was to avoid turning misery into folklore (Bentes 2003: 124).

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        Secondly, Black God, White Devil does not imply a struggle between God and the Devil as much as it does a struggle against both God and the Devil, both of which, while in opposition, are together in the land of the sun. Sebastião who represents the ‘Black God’ is a syncretic figure combining historical, messianic figures of the Brazilian Northeast. At the same time he recalls the millenarian Luso-Brazilian myth  of Sebastião, the Portuguese king. The film’s Sebastião is the self-proclaimed disciple of Saint George, who promises apocalyptic transformation, in which evil will be swept away and replaced by goodness. Corisco who is ...

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