What a crazy movie. If you know anything about Brazilian history, you will probably not feel quite as lost as I did.

We are in some decade from the past, and Brazil is gripped by drought. Cowherd Manuel (Geraldo Del Rey) is cheated by his boss who he kills in a fit of anger and desperation. Then he flees with his wife Rosa (Yoná Magalhães) and tries to redeem himself by becoming an acolyte of holy man Sebastião (Lidio Silva).

Sebastião is a bit of a cult leader, manipulating the desperation of the starving people to suit his cause. Manuel is ripe for the picking,and get sso caught up that he is willing to do unspeakable things. The other baddies are the Church, with a priest paying a lot of money to vigilante Antônio das Mortes (Maurício do Valle) to kill Sebastião. There is also another bandit who sets himself above the people and God, Captain Corisco (Othon Bastos). When Antonio is done with Sebastião, he sets his sights on Corisco.

These are the bare bones of the plot, and it is all very stagey, feeling like it comes from some cultural tradition of dramatic pauses and gestures. Whenever Antonio appears, a folk song telling his story fills the otherwise relatively silent soundtrack and it felt a little Monty Python (“Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore, riding through the sward…”)

For awhile I couldn’t tell the difference between Manuel and Antonio (although Corisco was always recognisable with his excellent hat) and I had to let myself be carried along by the story. There are some exquisite set pieces with framing and lighting and shadows cast against walls but there is also frenetic, shaking camera work and a cacophony of sound.

Women are silent, demons or there to be raped and have their children murdered. It really feels like what happens when men rule the world. One malignant narcissist after another feeling entitled.