Holy Tremor

Directed by Benjamin de Burca and Bárbara Wagner

Brazil. Historically Pernambuco state in the country’s northeast was characterised agriculturally by the sugarcane industry. Today there is a new sector in the economy: various evangelical Christian groups are on the rise. The mantra of the evangelicals, who have gained an ever-increasing influence in Brazilian society over the past years, is the attainment of improvements in one’s personal and economic situations through adherence to an extreme religious practice. In Brazil the evangelicals have established themselves as a growing political power over the past years. They control segments of the media and preach hate and intolerance towards homosexuality and other creeds. HOLY TREMOR focuses on a young generation of priests, producers and singers who hail from a rural area and make gospel music. Wagner and de Burca take into account the environment of the protagonists in order to make ethics, morality and life visible in an aesthetic agglomeration.