The Given Word (1962)

Director: Anselmo Duarte
Writers: Anselmo Duarte, Dias Gomes
Stars: Leonardo Villar, Glória Menezes, Dionísio Azevedo
Runtime: 98 minutes        

Plot: A simple yet devout Christian makes a vow to Saint Barbara after she saves his donkey, but everyone he meets seems determined to misunderstand his intentions. Will he be able to keep his promise in the end?

Review: Based on a popular Brazilian stage play, "O Pagador de Promessas," by Dias Gomes, the film tells of a simple peasant farmer who lugs a huge wooden cross to the door of a church, intending to place it inside as an offering to Santa Barbara for saving his injured donkey from death. But the priest will not permit him to enter when he learns that the promise of the offering was made at a voodoo ceremony. Thus the conflict is joined.

A subplot in which the wife of the peasant becomes involved with a beady-eyed criminal is sadly ingenuous as drama, and it is played in the style of ten-twent'-thirt' by the buxom Gloria Menezes and the skinny Geraldo del Rey.

This film was the grand prize winner at the Cannes festival in 1962, against such formidable competition as the British "A Taste of Honey" and the American "Long Day's Journey into Night." Surprise is now as great in this corner as it was among the people at Cannes.

Reviewed by Mohaiminul Islam