The congada was born in Minas Gerais, two centuries ago and is the only popular Afro-Brazilian ritual linked to Catholicism. Every year, on the occasion of the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary in Ouro Preto, descendants of the slaves from Angola, Congo and Mozambique gather to celebrate the enthronement of a new king.
Filmed between March and August 1970, the film presents the Catholic festival from its performative dimension. Residents of the region reveal a certain nostalgia for the spectacle, which, according to them, have been lost over time. It is in the search for a theatrical revival that the film operates, reactivating the historic city as a large open-air stage.
