Discover the story of Dona Purity that gives rise to the film
Mrs Purity has an inspiring story.
Pureza Lopes Loyola was born in Presidente Juscelino, a municipality 85 km from São Luís, and moved to Bacabal, 240 km from the capital, where her husband had relatives. With the end of her marriage, survival came to depend on the pottery and the sale of bricks in which she worked shoulder to shoulder with her five children. Evangelical, she became literate at age 40 with the aim of reading the Bible.
In 1993, after months without news of his youngest son, Antônio Abel, who had left in search of luck in the mining, Pureza decided to follow his trail. With the clothes on her back and equipped with a bag, her Bible and a picture of Abel, Purity was determined to find him dead or alive. She only knew that he had gone to Pará.
In her quest determined by Abel, Purity visits farms and discovers a perverse system of enslavement and slavery of “hired” workers to cut down large swaths of native forest in order to convert the area into pasture for cattle.
From farm to farm, Pureza got to know the drama of the peons up close, becoming a friend and confidant of many workers. She had an inside look at the system by which employers confiscated employees’ identity documents and made them totally dependent on supervisors for clothing, food and basic necessities. She heard dramatic accounts of workers who could be killed if they tried to rebel or flee.
With the help of the Pastoral Land Commission – the CPT, Pureza contacted the Ministry of Labor and the Public Ministry of Labor in Maranhão, Pará and Brasília. He even wrote letters to three presidents of the Republic: Fernando Collor, Itamar Franco (the only one who answered him) and Fernando Henrique Cardoso. To this day, she keeps a copy of each of these letters.
Purity’s battle to find Abel gave a decisive impetus to the creation, in 1995, of the Special Mobile Inspection Group, which brought together labor inspectors, federal police and labor prosecutors to ensure compliance with the law and the observance of labor rights in the entire national territory.
In 1997, Purity received the Anti-Slavery Award in London from Anti-Slavery International, the oldest active anti-slavery organization in the world.
Today, Abel lives in Bacabal with Purity and his family.
Between 1995 and 2021, Grupo Móvel freed more than 57,000 workers in conditions similar to slavery.
In 2018, according to estimates by the Walk Free Foundation, 369,000 people were subjected to slavery in Brazil. In the same year, according to the ILO, 40.3 million people were subjected to slavery in the world.
The policy to combat slave labor in Brazil has become a world reference. Currently, the fight against slave labor is facing a setback in the current federal government and in Congress.
The story of Dona Pureza is so inspiring that it gave rise to the film Puritywhich bears his name in the title and portrays everything he lived.
starring Dira Paeswho plays the protagonist, the feature film portrays this woman’s entire life journey.
CHECK OUT THE SYNOPSIS:
In the countryside of Maranhão, Dona Pureza works making bricks alongside her son Abel. In search of a better life, the boy decides to try his luck in the Amazon mining. When he hasn’t heard from his son for months, Purity begins a tireless journey to discover his whereabouts.
In the search for Abel, Purity travels through cities, enters farms and discovers a cruel system of recruiting and imprisoning rural workers. She witnesses the brutal treatment of workers.
With great courage, she manages to escape from the farm and decides to report the facts to the Federal authorities. Without credibility, and fighting against a strong and perverse system, Purity returns to the farm to record evidence and put pressure on the government – never losing sight of the search for her son Abel.
Inspired by the real story of Pureza Lopes Loyola, whose struggle inspired the creation of the Special Mobile Inspection Group, the first action in the history of Brazil aimed at combating slave labor throughout the national territory.
DATASHEET
CAST
Dira Paes
Matheus Abreu
Flávio Bauraqui
Mariana Nunes
Sérgio Sartorius
Claudio Barros
Alberto Silva Neto
Jefferson Mendes
Guto Galvão
Gregorio Benevides
john gott
Enoch Marine
Goretti Ribeiro
Paulo Marat
Felipe Lima
Andrade Junior
Roger Paes
Marta Ferreira
Amanda Perdigão
Zuhmar de Nazareth
Special participation
Walderez de Barros
Antonio Grassi
Giulio Lopes
Paulo Paiva
Nucleus of Rural Workers
Adonis Mendes
Celio Ferreira
Dalvan dos Santos
Erisvaldo da Silva
Jonas Silva
Euzimar de Souza
João Baptist Lima
Joeldo Marques
José Gildaro
Matias Gomes
Milson Almeida
TEAM
Direction: Renato Barbieri
Production: Marcus Ligocki Jr
Road map: Renato Barbieri, Marcus Ligocki Jr
Original Idea: Hugo Santarém
Photography: Felipe Reinheimer
Assembly: Marcelo Moraes, EDT
Music: Kevin Riep
Art direction: Zé Luca
Direct Sound: Zezé D’Alice
Post-production supervision: Jose Augusto de Blasiis
Sound Design: Caetano Cotrim De Blasiis, Eric Ribeiro Christani
mixing: Lucas Meyer, ASA
Costume: Inês Salgado
Makeup Design: Martín Macias Trujillo
Make up: Mari Pin
Production Direction: Mariangela Furtado
Location Production: Johnny Catrolli (Maraba), Fernando Toledo (Brasilia)
Cast Production: Ciça Castello
Associate Producer: Affonso Beato
Executive production: Marcus Ligocki Jr., Renato Barbieri, Paulo Morelli and Marcelo Goedert
Production Company: Gaya Films, Ligocki Entertainment
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Source: Maxima
