The Given Word ending explained

What happens

Zé is shot dead in a scuffle as police try to remove him from the church steps. Bystanders, including capoeira fighters, lay his body on the cross and carry it inside, completing the promise the priest refused to honour.

The last image

Ordinary people carry Zé's body, laid on the cross, through the church doors that were barred to him.

Two readings

1 · Community overrules institutionThe people grant Zé what the priest would not.

2 · Zé the martyrHis death makes him a martyr to his own word.

What it says

Zé never bends his promise, so the church refuses him and the crowd, press and police turn his vow into spectacle. Only at his death do ordinary people take it back, giving the title its full weight.