Synopsis

This contemplative documentary is the result of five years of ethnographic research into the sacred culture of Brazil, through a very poetic and sensorial approach. Documented around 120 rituals across 17 states of Brazil, from Roman Catholic to Umbanda and candomblé—mixtures of African traditions with Catholicism, where the Indigenous, African, and European cultures live so intrinsically together, Brazil has the most diverse spiritual culture in the world. French filmmakers and artists Vincent Moon and Priscilla Telmon investigated the relationship between trance, ecstasy, music, apparitions and spiritual rituals. Many of the ceremonies they filmed had been recorded on screen for the very first time, with the camera intimately close in the midst of the ritual, allowing us to become part of the mystical experience. Music pulsating at high rhythms, chants of the devotees and non-stop dances, creating in its core a new perspective about what might be the invisible and how to deal with it in a transcendental way.

International Documentary Film Amsterdam (IDFA), Official Selection, 2017
Sound & Vision Award Nomination and Official Selection, ‘CPH:DOX’ 2018 (Denmark)