VIFF Review: The Miracle of Candeal

The Miracle of Candeal [MIRAC] tells two intermingled stories. The first is of 85 year old Cuban pianist Bebo Valdes' journey to Bahia state in Brazil to discover the roots of his music. The second is the story of the favela Candeal located in Bahia's capital city of Salvador and its rise out of abject poverty through music.

This is not a documentary but a story told in documentary style. Things are definitely staged. "By chance", after arriving in Salvador, Bebo wanders into a church attracted by the sound of singing. There he befriends Mateus who is leading a vocal group practicing in the reverberant church. Mateus takes Bebo to Candeal and introduces him to Carlinhos Brown and his band. Carlinhos introduces him to the community leaders of Candeal and to many important Bahian musicians.

For some reason I don't think I could just walk up to Caetano Veloso's house, ring the doorbell, be let onto the seaside deck, and have him sing a few songs to me, but Bebo gets the royal treatment. Accompanied with Carlinhos, he gets the same welcome at the house of Gilberto Gil where Bebo explains the Haitian origin of the rhythm that Gilberto performs. Bebo gets to play and speak with many musicians including the Hip-Hop Roots group, and singer Marisa Monte.

The climax of the film is the Carnival sequence. We and Bebo are thrust into the middle of the action. With gloriously engineered sound we are surrounded by the vibrancy and rhythm of the Carnival. But all things come to an end and we get to see the aftermath of Carnival as workers disassemble the floats, cleaners remove the garbage, and weary participants slump down where they can to sleep it off.

The striking thing about the people of Bahia and their traditions and culture are how strongly tied they are to their African roots. Africa is the mythical motherland and is spoken of in reverential tones. Catholic and African beliefs are freely mixed--there didn't seem to be any orthodox priests around to exorcise the African elements out. Stories, traditions, and music are handed down orally to the next generation. Surprisingly little of the outside world infiltrates the culture. In contrast to their material poverty the people are rich in culture.