Quilombo

This is a spectacular, brilliantly colored historical epic that explores the beginnings of Quilombo de Palmares, the Brazilian slave nation in the mid-1600s. Director Diegues described the nation as "the first democratic society that we know of in the Western hemisphere." The picture begins as the slaves revolt and violently murder their Portuguese owners. Taking to the forests of northeastern Brazil, the slaves form a nation, free from the oppression of slave owners. They are soon joined by other oppressed peoples such as Jews and poor white farmers. A government is created and a leader elected--Ganga Zumba, played by Tornado. The Portuguese, however, retaliate an...