Cobra Verde (Slave Coast) (Cobra Verde)

That will cost you money.

Ladies and gentlemen...

...you'll have to pay up...

... if you want me to sing the ballad of Francisco Manoel...

...the bandit of Cobra Verde...

...the poorest of the poor...

...the master of the slaves...

It was he who became the Viceroy.

It was he who was the Alonest of the alone.

Francisco Manoel's mother sighs,

Francisco, I feel only aches and dread.

Francisco Manoel's mother cries

Francisco, leave me. I will soon be dead.

Eleven years of drought, the rocks are sick.

The world is dying. Evil is a trick.

I will die now. Be quiet, or the bench will crack from sadness.

Do not move. Stay still.

The water, the earth and the sun turn black.

God in His Perplexity, pretends it's His Will.

Francisco, traveling, reads a line in the sky.

''Don't set your eyes on the salt sea shore.

Don't reason. Don't argue. Don't ask us why.

Fate will send you a lover, and one friend more.''

Based on the novel ''The Viceroy of Ouidah'' by Bruce Chatwin

His Royal Highness Nana Agyefi Kwamell of Nsein

and with the girls of the Zigi Cultural Troupe Ho Ziavi

Where's my money?!

Where's my money?! Where are my partners?! Where's my money?!

Keep moving! Next?

What the hell are you doing here? There's no money for you!

What? No! I can't believe it!

You know you don't get any wages this week.

The bank kept it all! Get out!

There's no place here for blood suckers.

You bastard! You cheated me!

I want you awake when you die!

It's Cobra Verde, the bandit! Get the children in a safe place!

Go on, get it into the church!

That rifle stays outside!

Now, get that thing out of here, or I'll throw you out!

I want something to eat! Tell your parents Cobra Verde is here!

I have no parents! This is my bar, and you don't frighten me!

My name is Francisco Manoel.

And my name is Euclides...

Euclides Alves da Silva Pernambucano Wandereley.

I'm a da Silva too.

It's only my chest and shoulders that are crooked- at night...

I always dream I have to carry a whole mountain range on my back.

You stand straighter than the whole town!

- I'm hungry. - I'll bring you some food.

How do you know all these things?

From our priest, and he learned them from our Bishop.

And where does the snow come from?

You'll see it out there!

There's always snow on the moon!

That's why it's always white! White and cold.

You have to look very carefully.

Why is that?

It's because the moon... takes the water out of the ocean.

And when night falls...

the tips of the mountains attract the snowflakes.

But only as much salt as we have in our tears.

And here on earth?

It's very far away- you must keep going west.

Four years in horseback... and ten on foot.

And after that, there are high mountains.

They rise higher and higher- right over the clouds.

And then above the clouds, then you find the snow.

It only falls in the night-time.

Just like feathers. But it only falls... from above the clouds.

And then the whole world turns light as feather-

and snow white!

Even the lions turn white... and the eagles...

the rabbits get a snowy coat...

and all the animals in the world turn white!

And when you're walking through the snow...

your feet don't weigh anything at all.

And the little snowflakes, go flying up in the air...

just like feathers.

In a year or so, I'm going to sell this bar.

And then go west, and climb up the mountains.

I'm going east to the sea.

The Sertao dries our hearts, and kills the cattle.

You'd better be very careful when you go to the sea...

it's where the tempests are born...

and the snowflakes have their cradle.

That's what the reverend father said!

I never had a friend in all my life...

Farewell.

Your money or your life!

My life.

Every day... you walk forty miles through the thorns...

And why are you barefoot? Don't you have any shoes?

I don't trust shoes.

And why don't you have a horse?

I'd never trust a horse. And I don't trust people either.

But I long to go forth from here to another world.

Stop him! Don't let him get away!

Don't run away. It'll only be worse for you.

Let him go!

He can find the post by himself!

Hey, you with the bare feet. What's your name?

Da Silva... Francisco Manoel da Silva.

I am Colonel Octavio Cotinho. I need a man like you.

I have six hundred slaves in my sugar fields...

and my overseer is an idiot.

No one... grows more sugar than I do.

Now, if that's not enough, you can always ask for more.

I've never had this many clothes before.

You know, when I think there are still some fields not planted...

with my sugar cane.

It makes me even madder to think there are meadows...

where my cattle aren't grazing!

And when I think of all the mulatto girls...

I haven't made pregnant yet, why, that's quite beyond endurance.

Better watch out for the ladies, my friend!

And when do I start work?

Oh, there's no hurry. I'll show you everything.

You'll be the overseer here.

We harvest twice a year, it's that fertile.

I've got another forty sugar plantations just like this one.

I alone produce more sugar than the whole state of Pernambuco.

A hundred thousand tons per year.

And all of it goes to England, our enemy.

They've abolished the slave trade. They seize our ships.

And yet, without us they wouldn't have any sugar.

And the way they buy the sugar...

you'd think our rivers were overflowing with the stuff.

Hah, it's grotesque.

You'll be in charge here, too.

This is where we squeeze out the sugar cane...

and this is where the juice is thickened.

We heat the molasses up to a hundred and twenty degrees.

At this stage it's still a thin syrup.

In a couple of hours the molasses will start to crystallize.

This is no easy task- every now and then one of the workers...

collapses from the fumes.

But we've got enough of them.

As you see here we're ladling it from one tub to another.

Don't run away. Get a machete. Hurry!

We're going to have to hack another arm off!

Is there nothing we can do?

Oh, this sort of thing happens all the time.

How very strange. I haven't bred any children yet today.

Come on. Come on then!

Hey, Francisco Manoel... don't your shoes fit?

Tell me, did you ever learn how to use a knife and fork?

The man from Santao doesn't talk to just anyone!

How many cows did you own?

I have nothing to lose. I don't have to talk to anybody!

I'll kill the lot of you! My daughters are all whores.

Rutting with a barefoot cowherd! Bonita you whore!

Bonita! Bonita! You filthy little bitch! Bonita pregnant!

My little Bonita pregnant!

Wandeleide! Only fifteen years old and she's pregnant!

Valkyria! Valkyria! Valkyria!

Valkyria, look me in the eye and tell me the truth!

Are you pregnant too? Well!

No, I mean yes. Daddy, I don't know!

Cowherd! Bastard! You!!! What have you got to say for yourself!

Sugarcane planter. I am the bandit Cobra Verde.

An outlaw in my own house!

A thief, a bandit, a criminal!

Let's put him on trial.

Just kill him.

The man's too dangerous.

We'd have three or four dead before we finished him off.

Why not marry him off to one of your daughters?

After all, isn't he the best man on your plantation?

I'd have done that...

if the swine hadn't made all three of them pregnant.

Send him to Africa to buy slaves.

What do you mean : ''buy slaves''?

We haven't had a slave from Africa in the last ten years.

That's just the point.

We send him to a certain death.

The King of Dahomey is mad.

Anyone who sets foot on his territory is killed on the spot!

Not one single white man has come back alive from there...

in the last ten years.

And what if... and what if the scum does manage it!

He'll never make it. I know Africa.

I know the Bight of Benin.

And if he does make it, he'll bring back so many slaves...

you can extend your plantations all the way to Sergipe.

Why don't you give him your oldest daughter to marry?

Yes! Use him any way you can.

And as for the other two girls... well, surely you can find...

some sort of husband for them.

If that doesn't appeal to you...

send them to the Carmelite Sisters. The choice is yours.

I'll kill that pig!

I'll arrange everything with my friend the governor.

Da Silva... we have a special assignment...

which we can entrust only to a capable man.

This is an official certificate entitling you to practice...

the slave trade.

As you know, this trade has fallen into stagnation.

The King of Dahomey has cut off our supplies...

but we know he needs weapons and money.