



The Given Word
O Pagador de Promessas
Synopsis
When his beloved donkey Nicolau is saved from a fatal lightning strike by an Afro-Brazilian Candomblé terreiro ritual, a naive peasant named Zé do Burro promises Saint Barbara to walk thirty miles carrying a colossal wooden cross on his shoulders and divide his small farm among poor peasants, arriving at the Church of Saint Anne in Salvador only for the dogmatic Catholic parish priest to lock the cathedral doors against his syncretic pagan vow. Anselmo Duarte and Dias Gomes' historical masterpiece—the only Brazilian and South American film to ever win the Cannes Palme d'Or.
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The Given Word
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Director Spotlight
Anselmo Duarte

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