Shoot the Duke

Slaves of the Saint is an ethnographic documentary about Afro-Brazilian religions, which combine elements of African religions, folk Catholicism, and Spiritualism. Popular in urban centers like Rio de Janeiro, these religions center on a variety of spiritual beings who are believed to be active in the lives of human beings, for good or ill. The documentary focuses on devotion to unruly spirits called exus and pomba giras, controversial entities often associated with black magic. Eschewing an all-knowing narrator in favor of participants' own testimony--and featuring an interview with a bawdy pomba gira--Slaves of the Saint shows the importance of these spirits in the lives of their devotees and offers an inside account of popular but often maligned spiritual practices. —Anonymous