Tambor Multiartes

In a small town in southern Brazil, Lidia spends his days watching others working around you and at night dreaming of times past in the cultivation of tobacco, when I could still walk. Along with the rescue of its history, we know the lives of four other tobacco growers. Guided by tradition, mysticism or pure pragmatism, they live on the fine line between the fight and the love of the land.

In 2011, I visited Mrs. Deni Prata Jardim, the last representative of the Casa das Minas (House of Minas) in Northern Brazil. Among other things, Deni told me the story of the foundation of the house, during the slavery period. Among the slaves, there was a priestess from Dahomey, where she used to be a queen, and worshiped African voodoos. Lacking authorization to practice their worship, the slaves hid in a shed, which has become over the years the House of Minas.

Priestess, slave, queen. After two centuries trapped in Sao Luis, Brazil, Agontimé breaks free and embarks back to her homeland, the Kingdom of Dahomey – current Benin –, hoping to retake the sacred place that is her by right.