The Black Orpheus and other Portrayals of African Derived Religions

The film Orfeu negro (Black Orpheus) by the French director Marcel Camus (1959) which is set in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, won several awards including the Academy Award for best foreign-language film and the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or. It catapulted Brazilian music onto the international scene and made the carnival of Rio a widely recognized symbol of Brazil. However, despite of its fame and ongoing popularity, the film has an ambivalent legacy, mainly due to the ignorance towards the social realities of its time. This chapter compares the film with the Brazilian play on which the film is (loosely) based and reflects on the social setting of both, the film and the play. The second part focuses on the portrayal of the African-derived religion in the film. By aligning it to Brazilian films that portrayed African-derived religions the chapter discusses its challenging legacy today.