Drama
Brazilian (O Pagador de Promessas)
1962 · Directed by Anselmo Duarte · 98 min
A poor farmer from the Brazilian backlands makes a vow to a saint when his beloved donkey nearly dies. To fulfil it, he sets out with his wife to carry a huge wooden cross across the country and into a church in the city of Salvador. The film is a plain, tense drama about faith, pride and who gets to decide what devotion means.
Why it matters in cinema history
A landmark of Brazilian cinema and an unusual Palme d'Or winner: a modest, stage-derived drama from outside the Cinema Novo wave that became the country's best-known international prize-winner of its era.
Watch with intention
Watch it as a slow-burning argument between two kinds of belief: one lived and personal, the other organised and procedural.
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