In Nazaré da Mata, a small town near Recife in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, young people don’t hold rap battles, but samba battles. The maracatu culture, an Afro-Brazilian dance and music spectacle related to carnival with roots in the era of slavery, is in their blood. A local evangelical priest, himself an ex master of maracatu, is opposing to this cultural heritage regarded as inspired by the devil. Azougue Nazareth follows men and women taken from a real maracatu group, who set up the annual show of dance and music linked to the carnival. They live their everyday life, struggling with their problems, while supernatural presences appear in the sugarcane field. Thanks to Melo’s rural portrait, we experience an anthropological insight about costumes, tradition and self-expression. The characters depict an authentic, tormented humanity, which moves between joys and sorrows, keeping the yearning for self-determination that one’s own tradition claims.

http://www.visionaerfilmfestival.com/2018/azougue-nazare/