O Pagador de Promessas

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Keeper of Promises (O Pagador de Promessas)
Original poster in Portuguese
Directed by	Anselmo Duarte
Produced by	Francisco de Castro Anselmo Duarte Oswaldo Massaini
Written by	Dias Gomes (play) Anselmo Duarte
Starring	Leonardo Villar Glória Menezes Norma Bengell Dionísio Azevedo
Music by	Gabriel Migliori
Cinematography	H.E. Fowle
Editing by	Carlos Coimbra
Distributed by	Cinedistri (Original release) Globo Vídeo (Re-release) Lionex Films Inc. (US) Doperfilme (Portugal)
Release date(s)	March 24, 1964 (NYC only)
Running time	98 min
Language	Portuguese
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

O Pagador de Promessas is a 1962 Brazilian drama film directed by Anselmo Duarte. Its title tranlates as The Payer of Promises, but the film has also been known by several other names in the English-speaking world, including Keeper of Promises, The Given Word and The Promise.

Duarte (who was also one of the film's producers) adapted the screenplay himself from the famous stage play written by Dias Gomes. The film won the 1962 Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and it was the first Brazilian movie ever to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

1 Synopsis
2 Main cast
3 Awards & nominations
4 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Zé do Burro (Leonardo Villar) is a landowner from Nordeste, Brazil. His best friend is a donkey. When his donkey falls terminally ill, Zé makes a promise to a Candomblé priestess: if his donkey recovers, he will give away his land to the poor and carry a cross (like Jesus Christ) all the way from his farm to the cathedral of St. Barbara in Salvador, Bahia. Upon the recover of his donkey, Zé leaves on his journey. The movie begins as he arrives outside of the cathedral. The priest refuses to accept the cross once he hears the about his "pagan" pledge and the reasons behind it. Everyone attempts to manipulate the innocent and naive Zé, much as would later happen in Monty Python's The Life of Brian. The local Candomblé worshippers, for example, want to use him to fight the discrimination of the European church. The sensationalist newspapers transform his promise to give away his land into a call for agrian reform and revolution. When the police shoot Zé, the Candomblé worshippers put his body on his cross and carry it into the church.