During Brazil’s colonization,
some of the Black people brought from Africa as slaves
couldn’t stand the captivity
and ran to the forests and distant hills,
where they founded big Black villages called quilombos.
The most famous one was Palmares,
that lived on for almost a century.
Around 1640,
a banto king named Zambi governed Palmares,
who transformed it on a symbol of freedom and peace.
Cry daddy, cry mommy,
cry gongoba that went to the other side.
Cry daddy, cry mommy,
cry gongoba that went to the other side.
Cry daddy, cry mommy,
cry gongoba that went to the other side.
Praise the Great Lord.
Praise our Lord.
She called me before going to the pole.
She knew she was going to die.
She told me Antão is Zambi’s grandson.
It was the son of Zambi who made Antão inside of her.
That’s why he’s the prince of Palmares.
This is the Ganga’s necklace.
And the bracelet of Oxumaré,
protector of Gangas and of Palmares.
She gave me them as a proof.
Antão Ganga Zumba,
prince of Palmares.
I told them you lacked a good one, maggot.
Dirty n* !
You don't have a mother anymore, little shit.
We have to find a way to get there.
He can’t stay here.
Zambi is tired and needs his grandson to fight against the Whites.
He has to go to Palmares. We have to find a way.
I know it!
One of us has to go to Palmares and bring Zambi’s orders.
I’ll go.
I can go.
It’s better if Terêncio goes.
He’s more experienced.
It’s better if Terêncio goes.
Just tell me when.
It has to be now.
When the acauã hoots thrice, it’s the sign of your return.
We’ll meet at Old Lissênia's ranch,
on the other side of the river.
If he gets there…
It has to be now.
May Oloru protect me.
Yeah, you!
Me?
Yes. Hurry up!
Go pick water for me on the stream.
Yes, sir.
Those who stop working will go straight to hell.
If you stop working,
you’ll take twenty coups from the spiky one, here.
Let’s see who wants more.
Let’s see.
Let’s see who wants more.
Let's see.
Oh, are you a bit tired?
Didn’t you see the other one, yesterday?
Do you want to serve as food for worms,
under the earth, like her?
Do you want to lose your flesh on the pole?
Let’s see who wants a bit of that.
Don’t be scared, boy.
You’re a newcomer.
You saw too little,
you will see much worst.
I want us to be free from all that.
It can’t take long.
One day, Palmares will grow.
We are all going there.
Just escaping isn't enough.
To get lost in the woods,
to die of hunger, of everything,
to die of all deaths.
One day all of our king's atabaques
will call us to Palmares.
Just escaping isn't enough.
We have to wait.
Cry daddy, cry mommy,
cry gongoba who went to the other side.
Cry daddy, cry mommy,
cry gongoba who went to the other side.
Cry daddy, cry mommy,
cry gongoba who went -
Damn boy!
Watch out!
If I were him, I would do like that, and like that,
so you won't be a naughty Blackie,
and go around deceiving others.
No, not deceiving, Mr. Foreman!
I took a little longer because I found a cutie on my way...
The foreman is waiting for his water, Antão.
Go take it to him.
One of these days I’ll put a knife on his stomach.
A man like that deserves to die without a heart.
Pampered horses are no good for long journeys...
We need some time to see each other without being worried all the time.
At Palmares we won't have to hide in order to talk to each other.
Are you also obsessing with Palmares?
This is something from Mr. Aroroba’s imagination.
Yes, maybe. I don’t know.
But there’s a lot of people there.
This is Mr. Aroroba’s nonsense!
They say it’s our parents’ land,
who used to live the other way,
without slaves and slaves’ owners.
Everybody the same color!
Nonsense.
Mr. Toninho!
Two of them are missing, Mr. Toninho. Just now, I guess.
It was time for the rest, I called the roll, two were missing.
We looked everywhere, but they're really gone.
Shit.
It’s the slave hunter, Tolentino da Rosa.
It’s the war on the hills.
Nambi will probably call you.
When acauã whistles thrice,
it’s because Terêncio is back.
And then we’ll know if you’ll go to Palmares.
I don’t know, Mr. Aroroba.
Is it worth the risk of escaping?
Palmares is the kingdom of Zambi.
Nonsense.
Don’t say that.
Are you the grandson of our king?
You'll still fight against the Whites who want to end the kingdom of Zambi.
- I’m not that sure. - Young man.
Careful with what you say.
You were made at the bottom of a ship, between chains and tears.
But no chain can take the king’s blood that Olorum put in your veins.
Your mother died that way.
You can’t.
These rotten men threw her from the abyss.
The Queen of our people couldn't be under the earth.
Her body can’t feed the worms of the earth.
I always think about my body resting in Palmares,
in the free lands, as free as our own lands at the other side of the sea.
To see if this body stops aching.
One day, the Whites will wipe Palmares out.
They have tried many times.
They are stronger. All armed up.
They own everything.
It doesn’t beat the will to be free.
It beats everything.
Palmares will end one day.
You don’t have a clue.
They tried everything.
They tried everything to finish Zambi.
But Oxumaré protects Palmares, he doesn’t let our kingdom be destroyed.
Once, Olinda’s governor sent Black people there,
infected with the plague.
They were just scraps of flesh, destroyed by the bridle of the soldiers.
The Whites let them go so they spread the plague through Palmares’ warriors.
They thought it was their turn to be free
and climbed up to Zambi’s kingdom,
not knowing that it was a White’s trick
to destroy our people.
Zambi had to kill them.
A lot of people died.
If you tried to pile them up, you wouldn’t fit them all in here.
The Whites thought of that…
The Whites are organized in their cruelty against us, son.
They all fight as one.
We are many, but we’re scattered.
But Oxumaré doesn’t let Palmares be over.
Palmares is a land of free blood.
Let’s go to sleep!
The chit-chat is over.
Let’s sleep.
Or else tomorrow you’ll slob around.
Everybody lying down, now.
You are Ganga Zumba, Antão.
You are going to be the king of us all.
Let the foreman know that the people from Pinhancó is already here,
and that he can bring the Blacks.
You can leave your things right there.
I don’t even need it.
With all that rush to leave tomorrow morning…
You won’t even stay more than one day?
The Blacks would stay. But Madam wants to go back soon.
Why bother to come, in that case.
A White people’s hobby.
Do you see captain Tolentino, here?
He brought you a surprise.
Five days ago, two slaves fled and tried to run off to the hills.
But they didn’t go too far.
They’re dead in the woods,
rotting, lacking their ears.
But I know how to rewards the good pieces.
The lord of the lands of Pinhancó
brought his negresses to breed with the best of you.
For the rest, there’s cachaça and tobacco for the whole day.
The work is finished for today.
Madam is asking for her cashew’s juice.
Cry daddy, cry mommy…
All is lost.
They didn’t get there.
We have to send another one.
Tolentino brought only one ear.
Maybe…
Maybe there’s another one alive.
He only killed one of them.
One of them is there.
Oxumaré. Oxumaré wanted it.
We have to go now to the old lady's ranch.
Mr. Aroroba, go ahead.
I’ll be right there, I have a little thing to do before it.
I’ll be right there!
No use getting all randy.
She's leaving early tomorrow morning.
I need to talk to you.
Zambi sent the best guide of Palmares.
Beyond the river, we’ll find his warriors waiting for us.
We can’t take long. They’re at war.
When is Ganga Zumba supposed to go?
Right now.
Beyond the river,
chef Timbaúba and other warriors will wait for us for two days.
So we can proceed our journey safely.
But they’re once again at war,
and our journey will be tough, with more and more white soldiers fighting.
We were close to running across them.
We have to leave soon.
We'll leave when Antão gets here.
It won’t take long.
King Zambi wants Mr. Aroroba to go too.
Don’t worry. The old lady is crazy.
There’s no danger.
We have to take something to eat.
We're good. Dry fish and flour for two days.
This crazy old lady is ruining everything.
You have to leave fast.
The slave hunter is still at the property.
He’s coming to get you.
You have to leave pretty fast.
So Antão won’t come?
He knows it’s insane to try to find us after dark.
But we need to buy time.
Antão should have been here already.
The sun is already dying.
Tonight is moon’s night.
We’ll walk as if it were day.
Look!
There was death in the woods.
I took a bit longer, didn't I?
I just had to do it.
It looks like a person’s heart.
Here there was enough evil to dry up the whole world.
We have to go.
It’s getting late.
This is the guide Zambi sent us.
What is she doing here?
She helped me to punish the slave hunter.
Now she can’t stay,
she has to come with us.
We have to get going.
Each one has their own reason to go.
Let’s go.
Mr. Aroroba will leave to the fields of freedom,
he deserves to go.
Please send people to get us,
and all the Blacks who live in despair around here.
Take Ganga Zumba to Palmares, so he makes our people happy.
May Oloru protect us, brother Salustiano.
Saruê.
Mocotó’s ranch is close.
The bracelet from Oxumaré…
… the Orixá who protects the free land of Palmares.
There’s a heavy rain coming.
Short rain, won’t take long, better hurry.
Hurry!
If we can’t catch them alive, dead will do.
It’s a good thing that the rain is over, isn't it?
Sergeant Manuel Lopes got to the hills during winter.
Zambi knew it, and sent his son to block the White's passage.
Winter on the hills,
it's the season of the eagle and the wish to hunt is everywhere.
So we stop worrying about life.
So we all get happy.
From the beginning, the Whites attack Palmares.
Some of these times, I thought it was the end.
Now they've killed Zambi's son.
There's nobody to take the place after our king.
Zambi is tired.
Many years of struggle.
Many wounds in his body.
His legs are curving down.
Zambi is waning now.
Dying slowly.
Waning.
Each day, more Whites are coming.
Each day, they strike harder,
they’re angrier.
They’ll give up, one day.
Oxumaré is stronger.
I saw Palmares.
Palmares won’t die.
There’s no White who can finish us.
Zambi is tired, but he won’t give up the fight.
None of us will.
When we left the hills, they were still at war.
Zambi showed his dead son to his warriors.
He had blood in his eyes,
fire in his blood,
courage in his heart.
Zambi screamed: "kill the Whites...
...kill the White’s sons and spouses...
...kill every White thing.
Kill even the Whites’ deaths.
You brat...
Women are like ripe jenipapos.
The more bruised they are, the sweeter they become.
Mocotó is a Black sick with the plague.
He can’t go to the hills, or else everybody will get it.
The Whites don’t want him at the slave quarters, either.
He stays in the woods, giving up information for Zambi’s people.
Information are no good.
Timbaúba might not have enough time to wait.
We’re here.
The Whites from the plantation are around here, behind us.
Mocotó said Zambi defeated the sergeant's troops.
They're going back with some men, by the river.
If we run across them, it may be certain death.
We can’t move forward.
That side, we have Pinhancó.
It's dangerous.
That side, the hills start to rise.
They’re difficult to go through, but safer.
Let’s go through the hills.
It's the best we do.
Let’s go through Pinhancó.
The hills are safer.
Let’s go through Pinhancó!
They bought time by the free road.
They left the plantation in the early morning.
Don’t kill her!
She’s a traitor.
Let's take her with us.
So she can learn to protect what's hers.
It’s better to hide the bodies.
Let’s go!
The boat is gone.
Somebody took it, or it was the currents.
What will we do?
We have to build a raft
with wood from the forest.
It takes time.
If we're fast, we can cross tomorrow morning.
But we have to hurry.
- And Timbaúba? - I don’t know.
He’ll wait until today or tomorrow.
Depends on the war.
Let’s start it.
We’ll switch places during the night.
Two men work, and one takes care of the women.
We both will go first!
For how long have you been at Pinhancó?
What is your name?
Don’t be afraid, my child.
You’re between brothers, same blood.
She's mute.
What is your name?
If you want, cut her tongue out, and she’ll be mute for real.
An ox who won’t drool is good for nothing.
Pinhancó?
My mother was born at the harbor,
my father was the former owner of the plantation lands.
The Whites have no shame.
Do you know Palmares?
I’ve heard about it.
You’re going there.
I’ve heard you talking.
You’ll be different from what you were at the plantation.
There’s no Whites to make babies inside us Blackies.
A place just like the lands from where we came.
There are a lot of mosquitoes!
It’s a land for us to be free!
So we can be ourselves!
Have you ever seen, at the plantation, when a Black man ends up his work?
Sometimes he gets heavy eyelids.
Sometimes he disappears,
and when we realize, he’s got the banzo.
He misses the free land that he once knew.
The man smokes diamba to freshen up,
then he sees a dark sky
falling and falling from on high.
The leaves swinging like a baby.
He gets red eyes, as if he was going to cry, but he doesn’t.
But it hurts inside.
Nothing makes sense.
He can’t see that well.
Then everything explodes inside of us.
It explodes inside,
as if Exu had seized us.
He wants to be free, like before.
It’s the banzo.
As if he could be dead without death.
If he could be free again…
At Palmares, Blacks are not Whites’ slaves.
Blacks are Blacks. Whites are Whites. It was always that way.
Blacks are Whites’ slaves.
It wasn’t that way, and it isn’t going to be.
We’re a different people.
Separated from the Whites, we’re happy.
Some Whites are also slaves.
It can’t be, slaves and owners.
These stories of Whites and Blacks are nonsense.
Mr. Aroroba wants to stop being a White's slave to become a Black's slave.
He only wants to change his address and his foreman.
We have to be of our own.
You don’t have to be afraid. You’re in good company.
I know. At the company of the king.
When I saw you at the plantation, I found you very pretty.
I’m already fond of you.
I’m going to Palmares to become king.
Palmares will become a whole world.
When we’re there,
when we’re allowed to sleep with whomever we want,
not afraid of anything, I’ll ask you to come live with me.
But it’s not a king’s order!
If you don’t want to, it’s alright.
Who are you?
My name?
Are you also at war?
Which war?
Aren’t you a slave?
I’ve been a slave twice.
I run away and I go around, fishing, hunting,
until they catch me again.
They beat me up and I go back to the slave quarters.
Until I escape again.
Why didn’t you go to Palmares?
I don’t know.
It doesn’t work out for me.
What is your name?
Diogo.
- Dandara. - A name as beautiful as its owner.
You’ll never get to Palmares.
The Whites won’t let you.
Palmares will come down here.
It will be all over the world.
We'll have to fight like animals for the right to be humans.
So nobody else has to hide and wait to die.
- The Whites are coming. - Did you see them?
They’re getting close. Six men with a horse.
They’ll be right here.
The boat is almost ready.
Let’s go anyway.
Hurry up!
- Where is it? - Palmares.
It’s the beginning of the Feast of Adô.
To thank the Orixás for the victory at war.
The clearing is ready for the people’s joy.
The dancers are dressed in feathers.
Just like Indians.
With crowns made of hay soaked on goat’s blood.
They are dancing la kizomba.
Feet together, imitating the horses of the saints.
They know how to mimic every animal.
The women don’t dance,
but they hiss heavily,
taught on the respect to Adô.
Zambi drowns his hands on the bowl full of gold.
And slowly,
starts to decorate the heads of the girls that will become his wives.
Imitating every animal.
They lie down,
they roll...
Will Mr. Aroroba hold on?
Let’s go, it’s nothing.
While they’re shooting, it’s still good. It won't catch us.
If they stop it, they'll cross the river with the horses.
You need to take care of this!
I don’t need a thing, let’s go!
We have to find Timbaúba, and fast.
How long has it been since they left?
It looks like it has been erased since yesterday.
Does it take long, until we get to the hills?
More than a day’s journey from here.
Now Maelê is dancing, naked…
…around the body of Zambi's son.
On a mat.
She will lie on top of the body and keep dancing that way,
just like Olorum has danced to conquer Adô’s marinas.
It’s the feast of the victorious people.
It will last three days and three nights with plenty of joy.
Zambi is thanking the Orixás
with goat’s blood and sacred beads.
The warriors are all around, their arms tired from the fight,
their eyes shining with the lights from the hills.
It’s no use!
We have to do something.
If it were easy, we wouldn’t be fighting like animals.
We have do fight hard. Fight!
It can't be like that.
To fight.
There’s a lot of people like us who don’t want to live like animals.
We have to do something!
Give me this thing there.
The Whites will be here soon.
I will kill some of them, hurt others,
the rest of them I’ll slow down.
It’s time for you to run and get there.
The Whites are close.
I don’t have much time anyway.
Everybody is going together, Mr. Aroroba.
The Whites are close, son.
It's no use.
Not even if we had wings.
Let me stay.
Ganga Zumba has to go!
Our people are waiting.
Ganga Zumba will be Zumbi of Palmares.
You have to be there!
I’ll stay too.
Who will take Ganga Zumba to Palmares?
Mr. Aroroba, we’re almost there.
We have to get there.
You have to come, Mr. Aroroba.
Ganga Zumba is the king.
King Zumbi.
There is no king.
We die, or we’re enslaved.
We'll go to Palmares all together.
We’re on the right side.
So one day we’ll win.
But we have to fight to see this day.
So you’re the king, dirty n*?
Son of a b*.
It's Timbaúba!
I’m also Black! I’m a slave too!
I'm also Black, I'm a slave.
Look at my skin. I’m Black just like you.
I’m Black! I'm Black! I'm also a slave.
I want to go to Palmares and kiss Zambi’s feet.
I'm Black, I'm Black...
I'm a slave, look at my skin...
I want to go to Palmares and kiss Zambi’s feet.
I'm also Black, I'm a slave...
I also want to go to Palmares.