The Given Word / O Pagador de Promessas

Anselmo Duarte is well known in the Brazilian film industry as both a director and an actor and played the handsome hero in many a melodrama. This film became an international hit after winning the grand prize, the "Palme d'Or" at the Cannes Film Festival in 1962. The film tells the story of a rural couple, Zé do Burro (Leonardo Villar) and his wife Rosa (Glória Menezes)--and their sick donkey, who is saved miraculously after a candomblé service (a widespread African religion) in a small village in Bahia. The poor farmer wants to fulfil a pledge to St. Barbara by carrying a huge wooden cross 25 miles on his back from his home to Salvador/Bahia. But when the priest (Dionísio Azevedo) in Salvador learns that the pledge was made at a candomblé service, he won't let the farmer bring the cross into the church, thereby causing a tumult in the town that pits social groups and politicians against each other.

The film was based on a play by Dias Gomes, who broke with Anselmo Duarte over the liberties the director took with his drama. The stunning black and white cinematography, featuring location shoots in the beautiful city of Salvador, was the the work of the British-born Chick Fowle, who had a major influence on Brazilian cinema.