Carlos Diegues, bestknown in the States for his 1980 hit Bye Bye Brazil, is a veteran of thecinema novo movement of the sixties and a continuing influence inshaping a truly Brazilian cinema. Diegues was the first to integrateinto his films Brazil's black heritage and the history of slavery thatis so much a part of this heritage; Quilombo picks up where Ganga Zumba(1963) and Xica (1976) leave off in exploring the proud and sad legacyof Brazilian blacks. Set in the late 17th century, it tells of theutopian community (or quilombo) of Palmares, haven for runaway slavesfrom the great sugar plantations and, according to Diegues, "the firstdemocratic society we know of in the Western hemisphere." Led by theAfrican prince Ganga Zumba, Quilombo became a thriving economycompletely independent from European colonizers. Founded on racialequality, direct popular elections and collective ownership of land, thecommunity naturally drew its share of other outcasts-Indians, Jews andpoor white farmers-whose integration into the Afro-Brazilian rhythmsprovides no little humor in the film. A colorful fresco and a Brechtianpagaent, at once thrilling and historically accurate, fantastic andrealistic, Quilombo is a fitting tribute to this moment of sanity andecstasy in Brazil's history.