Travelling along the Estrada Real (Royal Road) in Minas Gerais guided by cachaça: a potential adventure, as much for the who is truly making the journey as for those who watch this film by Pedro Urano. The Estrada Real was built in 1697 by the Portuguese colonialists in what is now the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. The road used to link the harbour cities of Rio de Janeiro and Paraty to the gold and diamond mines in the central territories. Cachaça, Brazil’s most popular alcoholic drink, is another product of colonial times, subsequently embelished with myths and legends that only the unbridled imagination of the Brazilians could have invented. Pedro Urano set off in search of stories, past and present, throughout the ever-changing landscapes, from the desolation of the ‘sertão’ to the luxurious abundance of Rio. He met man and women along the length of the Estrada Real whose lives are closely linked to cachaça, forming a mosaic in which religion rubs shoulders with cooking, science, history, and magic.
With Estrada Real da Cachaça (Royal Road of Cachaça), Pedro Urano delivers a poetic and audacious essay, documentary in form and content. To follow him one must accept the rules of an eclectic and original narrative approach that operates through association, as if updating an ancient oral tradition of storytelling that has perpetuated itself through the generations, with all its compelling verities.
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