Skip to content

Le Santo Daime

Patrick Deshayes
1992 France 97 minutes Portuguese

In Brasil’s state of Acre, bordering Peru and Bolivia, the end of the world as the Brasilians themselves put it, a new synchretic religion was born at the beginning of the century. A mixture of Catholic religious rites, the candomble dance-trances of African origin and the hallucinogenic practices of the Amazon Indians. In Acre, the cult is followed by fifteen percent of the population – seringueiros (rubber tappers), “indigenists” (defenders of Indians’ rights), managers, shopkeepers and partisans of a multicultural but united Brasil. All of them have given body and soul to a new religion, which draws its essence from a magic drink, the Santo Daime.

Production :
Films de la Liane; Sept Arte; Ateliers de l'Arche
Distribution :
CNRS Images
Editing :
Juliana Sanchez
Sound :
Paulo de Jesus
Photography :
Peter Chappell