More than 50 years after having directed some of the most essential documentaries about the everyday life of the northeastern hinterland and the lives of its migrants, Geraldo Sarno returns to this environment with the freedom and clarity granted by maturity. It would be no exaggeration to say that Sertânia stands on an equal footing with Guimarães Rosa or Marcel Proust on their flights (and crawls) through memory and fable. The story of its protagonist accurately interweaves Canudos, as our “original sin”, with the migrant life in the Southeast and the cangaço lifestyle. No small feat. (E. V)