Malês

Antônio Pitanga's 2025 Brazilian film recounts the uprising that took place in Salvador in 1835. Organised by enslaved Africans, it is counted as the largest revolt of its scale in Brazilian history. At the centre of the narrative is preparation. Many of those who organised the rising could read and write and communicated in writing; the film brings that detail forward and does not present the revolt as a spontaneous outburst of anger. Pitanga both directs and appears, with members of his family also in the cast. The punishments imposed after the rising was crushed, and the tightening of control that followed, make up the final section. Who it's for: those who follow Brazilian history and narratives about slavery. Who it's not for: viewers for whom scenes of torture and execution would sit heavily; the film shows the suppression directly.