Word and Utopia

The film tells the life of Antonio Vieira. Vieira was a Portuguese priest of the seventeenth century. He belonged to the Jesuit order. He spent long years in Brazil. There he defended the position of the indigenous peoples. He also worked for the abolition of slavery. He was known for his sermons. Those same sermons made him a dangerous man. The Inquisition kept a close watch on him. In the end he was forbidden to preach. The film divides his life into three parts. Three different actors play Vieira. Lima Duarte, Luís Miguel Cintra and Ricardo Trêpa take the roles in Manoel de Oliveira’s five country coproduction of 2000.