Miguel Gomes has finally begun production on his long-awaited film Savagery (known in Portuguese as Selvajaria), which was first announced before the pandemic. Filming is taking place in Canudos, Bahia, located in north-east Brazil, and the movie is an adaptation of Euclides da Cunha’s canonical Brazilian novel Rebellion in the Backlands. The sole professional actor announced is the film’s narrator, Grace Passô, best known for her work in Brazilian productions and the 2023 Cannes Critics’ Week entry Power Alley; otherwise, the production will make use of the local population in non-professional roles.

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Solely focusing on the third and final part of da Cunha’s novel, itself based on real events, the film chronicles a bloody war that took place from 1896-1897 between the inhabitants of the hamlet of Canudos, a settlement in Bahia's sertão (“backland”), led by their prophet, Antônio Conselheiro – a religious leader and mystic – and the army of the young Brazilian Republic.

The feature is lead-produced by Portugal’s Uma pedra no Sapato, which also backed Gomes’ Cannes 2024 Best Director winner Grand Tour. Further co-producers are Bubbles Project and Matizar Filmes, which hail from Brazil; Shellac Sud and Les Films à Un Dollar, from France; Italy’s Vivo Film; and the Netherlands’ Lemming Film. Its international sales agent is Luxbox. After his memorable lensing on Grand Tour and Gomes’ previous films Tabu and Our Beloved Month of August, Rui Poças returns as cinematographer.

In a quote reported by the north-east Brazilian trade outlet Oxente Pipoca, Gomes spoke of de Cunha’s novel as “crucial for reflecting on Brazilian identity, but the conflict between the sertanejos and the republican soldiers is also representative of the entire human race. We will universalise the world of [the novel], but I also reiterate my commitment to staying true to Canudos and its population. At the end of the process, the idea is to have a film about literature, a portrait of a community and a modest treatise on human behaviour.”

For Mariana Ferraz, executive director of Matizar Filmes, “Making this film in Canudos, with the people who live there, is a very special experience. It is a Brazilian story that carries universal issues, and allows us to look at and better understand Brazil and today's world.”

When launching pre-sales at Cannes’ Marché du Film this May, Luxbox offered the following statement: “We are thrilled to be joining Miguel Gomes’s ambitious new project Savagery alongside an outstanding team of producers. At Luxbox, Miguel Gomes’ films have long been a source of inspiration. Bold and visionary, he’s a director who continuously reinvents cinematic language, and it is a true privilege for us to collaborate with him on this new film. Savagery delves into a powerful story of faith, war, repression and resistance.”