''Black Goddess'' () is a 1978 Nigerian-Brazilian film written and directed by

Ola Balogun Ola Balogun (born 1 August 1945) is a Nigerian filmmaker and scriptwriter. He also ventured into the Nigerian music industry in 2001. Balogun, who has been making films for more than three decades, is part of the first generation of Nigerian film ...

. It stars a largely Brazilian cast that include Sonya Santos,

Zózimo Bulbul Zózimo Bulbul (September 21, 1937 – January 24, 2013) was a Brazilian actor, filmmaker, and activist. Bulbul was a prominent proponent of Afro-Brazilian culture within Brazilian cinema and society at-large. Bulbul co-founded and organized the En ...

Léa Garcia Léa Garcia (born March 11, 1933) is a Brazilian actress. She is known for her numerous television and film roles. Her breakout role was in the Oscar-winning ''Black Orpheus'', in which she portrayed Serafina, Eurydice's crazy cousin. Television ...

, and Jorge Coutinho. The film is set in both the eighteenth century and the 1970s.

Plot

The protagonist of the movie is Babatunde, played by Zozimo Bulbul. The dying wish of Babatunde's father was for Babatunde to make a journey to Brazil and see what has become of the descendants of his great-grandfather, Oluyole who was abducted and sold into slavery and also search the story of a mysterious legend in the family's history. He is handed a Yemoja sculpture as guide to journey that took him from Lagos to favelas in Brazil and a visit to a candomblé session. The movie's plot used African spiritual embodiment existing as a reality. Babatunde is transported back to the period of his grandfather's time in Brazil with the help of Yemoja.

Cast

*Jorge Coutinho as Oluyole *Sonia Santos as Amanda, elisa *

as Babatunde *

as Yemoja *

Antônio Pitanga Antônio Luiz Sampaio (born June 13, 1939), better known by his stage name Antônio Pitanga, is a Brazilian actor. He became internationally known for playing several roles on films of the Cinema Novo movement in the 1960s. Personal life He was m ...

Production

''Black Goddess'' is the first Nigerian-Brazilian co-production. The film was co-produced by

EMBRAFILME Embrafilme (in full: ''Empresa Brasileira de Filmes S.A.'') was a Brazilian State-owned company created on September 12, 1969 for production, funding and distribution of Brazilian movies. The company was dissolved on March 16, 1990 by the National P ...

and Balogun's Afrocult Foundation. The scenes were shot in Brazil and the language is Portuguese.

Reception

Two critics,

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...

and Kathe Sandler described the film as a melodrama Maslin described the movie has two films, an historical melodrama in the tradition of ''Roots'' and a "fiery and forceful tribute to contemporary African culture". The movie won an award at the 1980 Carthage Film Festival.

References

External links

* 1978 films Nigerian drama films Brazilian drama films {{Nigeria-film-stub