The film is based on the real person João Francisco dos Santos (1900-1976), better known by the name of Madame Satã. He was a 1.78 meter black man weighing 88 kilos of muscle. In turn a bandit, a transvestite, streetfighter, cook, hero, convict and father to seven adopted children. Satã spent most of his years on the hot streets of Lapa, the Montmartre of the Tropics, the bohemian Rio.