lunedì 21 ottobre 2013

Carnaval Devoto - by Regiana Queiroz




Every year since 1793 the greatest religious event in the world takes place in the heart of Brazilian Amazon:  Círio de Nazaré.
Six million people invade for 15 days the towns of Vigia de Nazaré and Belém do Pará to take part in the celebrations.
The documentary is about “Carnaval Devoto”, an extraordinary event, unique in the world. Taking inspiration from “The Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri, the story is a metaphoric path that goes from the agony of the Hell to the Purgatory, to reach at last the Paradise, where we receive the grace of redemption.
These ritual steps reveal themselves through the most intense and different expressions of Círio de Nazaré: the feast, the religious culture, the holy and profane, the penance and flagellation, the purification through ablution, the immersion in the water to be born again to a new life.
At the end of 2013 Unesco will proclaim Círio de Nazaré Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
The documentary guides us through the most relevant steps of this grand feast,  sketching the main features of the peoples of  Pará: faith and intimacy, that are at the heart of the interaction with Our Lady of Nazareth, the patron saint of the State, fondly called with nicknames as “Naza”, “Nazica”, “Mother”, “Mother of Amazon”
The name Carnaval Devoto was used for the first time by one of the greatest Brazilian novelist, Dalcídio Jurandir, and after confirmed by the anthropologist Isidoro Alves, in his eponymous book.