Arquivo

March 24th of 1994 marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of Father Cícero Romão Batista, the patriarch of Juazeiro do Norte in the state of Ceará. The documentary follows a truck of palmers on their pilgrimage from Fernandes, the Arapiraca township in Alagoas, to Juazeiro – a 435 mile trip made under 16 hours. Interviews with ex-palmers and their descendants now established in Juazeiro – today a trading center with 180 thousand habitants – trace the historical and legendary profile of Father Cícero, a popular saint who died under suspension by the Church in 1934 and who became an advocate and father figure for the poor people of the Northeast, the only hope in a world without hope.