Sertânia

Unknown in Europe, the author of an abysmal and radiant filmography since the 1960s, Geraldo Sarno is one of the true hidden geniuses of Brazilian cinema, creator of masterpieces such as Coronel Delmiro Gouveia (1978), and who, at 82 years of age, reaches another immeasurable peak with Sertânia. The film begins with the arrival of bandits in a remote village in the northwest of Brazil. The protagonist, Antão, is wounded, arrested and abandoned to his fate. During his agony, he recalls the events that led him there. Hallucinogenic memories of human barbarism presented with the disorder and confusion of a mind in a state of pure delirium and hallucination. An emotional epic that captures the wounded soul of an entire people, represented in fiery black and white marked by explosions of light, illustrating the corrosion of a society in which privileges coexist in a terrible way alongside the hunger of a large part of the population.
When watching Sertânia, one inevitably thinks of Glauber Rocha's energy, and we are possibly looking at the last work of Cinema Novo, which in turn opens up unusual paths in Brazilian cinema. A visionary film by a capital artist.
JAVIER H. ESTRADA