Carlos Diegues	...	(Director)
	...	(Writer)
Joel Silva	...
Thiago Justino	...
Eduardo Machado	...
Arduíno Colassanti	...
Antonio Pitanga	...

Summary: I came across 'quilombo' after I had read on the internet about the 'palenques' or 'maroons', which were communities made of escaped slaves in Latin America's colonial era. In Brazil, the palenques were known as quilombos, and the most famous to have existed - and featured on the movie -- was that of Palmares in northeastern Brazil. Although the director injects a big dose of magic realism to the movie, it still gives a fairly accurate picture of the times - mid-late 17th century. The hellish conditions endured by slaves brought from western Africa, the Portuguese-Dutch wars, and the human will to break free combined to create the conditions for a slave exodus and a formation of an exile, small republic to form in a remote hillside in the forests.
The movie centers around two characters that have long lived in the collective memory of Afro-Brazilians for hundreds of years: Ganga Zumba and Zumbi, the former the spiritual leader of his new found nation, the latter the warrior who would resist fiercely the devastating assault unleashed upon the quilombo and its dwellers by a well-armed expeditionary force made up of portuguese troops, colonial regulars and Sao Paolo mercenaries.
'Quilombo' tells a story of defiance, courage, and the fighting spirit of formerly oppressed peoples who chose to die for their freedom rather than returning alive in chains to hell on earth, namely the sugar plantations of Pernambuco province. Palmares defied the Portuguese empire for almost a century, and represented a threat to the province's plantations because they were often raided and the slaves were freed.
For an attempt to publicize this epic era in Brazilian history, Diegues does a good job by putting together historical facts and magic realism. Though I would have loved to see more emphasis on the economic aspects of the quilombo. It is said that 'Palmares' had developed its own business schemes with free-lance merchants and local ranchers as well, creating also not only the threat of slave mutiny but the threat that presented the diversity in crops around the quilombo, which contrasted sharply with the monocultures, thus the economic interests of plantations.
All in all, 'Quilombo' is dramatic, thrilling, and beautiful. For those interested on history about maroon communities and slave resistance in the New World I truly encourage to get this movie.