MALÊS
Dir. Antônio Pitanga | Brazil | Drama | 2025 | 113 mins

Chicago Premiere

By renowned Brazilian filmmaker Antônio Pitanga – one of the key actors of Brazil’s influential Cinema Novo movement (1960s and 70s), Malês is a dramatic journey of courage, faith, and resistance set in 1835 Salvador, Bahia.

The film centers on a young Muslim couple ripped from their African homeland and sold into slavery in Brazil on the eve of their wedding. Separated by cruel fate, they struggle not only to survive the daily horrors of the sugar plantations and urban servitude but also to find a path back to each other. Their personal fight for survival becomes swept up in the Malê Revolt, the largest and most influential organized uprising of enslaved people in Brazilian history, led by Muslim Africans.

This powerful historical drama vividly brings to life the resilience, intellect, and unity of the enslaved and free Black communities who dared to challenge the entire institution of slavery, cementing Malês as a monumental contribution to the cinematic history of the African Diaspora.