Saktos (2023)

Saktos
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Robin Bantoa
Written by	Moisés Pires
Produced by	Ezequiel Corte-Real Danilo Andrade
Starring	Isaac Faria Reynaldo Sapateiro Nicole Abreu Marcelo Leite
Cinematography	Fausto Vomlel
Edited by	Marquinhos Menezes
Music by	Gualberto Vila
Distributed by	Almir Pictures
Release dates	September 28, 2023 (2023-09-28)
Running time	132 minutes
Country	Quetana
Budget	L 14 million

Saktos is a 2023 Quetanan drama film written by Moisés Pires and directed by Robin Bantoa, starring Isaac Faria, Reynaldo Sapateiro, Nicole Abreu and Marcelo Leite. Atílio Serra, Matheus Siqueira, and Calista Dias are in supporting roles. The film dramatizes the events of the 1929 Saktos riot, a coal miners' strike in 1929 in Saktos, a small town in the hills south of Albate. Saktos was a critical success and received 6 nominations at the 97th Tofino Film Festival, including for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Leite), Best Original Score, Best Costume Design, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing.

Plot

Raúl Lopes is an ex-union organizer for the Collected Mine Workers. He arrives in Saktos, Dellenao in 1929 to organize miners against the Brita Mountain Coal Company. His introduction to the town is his witnessing of a mob of miners angry at wage cuts beating up black miners who intended to cross the picket line. He takes up residence at a boarding house run by a coal miner's widow, Teodora Barreto, and her 15-year-old son, Artur, who is also a miner and a budding Church of Verdusa preacher. The miners are reluctant to bring the imported workers into their union, a cause not helped by Odilon Guimarães, a spy for the company within the union, who tries to goad the miners into violence and secretly informs the Renzi-Águas Detective Agency of the "red" Raúl's presence.

The next day, two Renzi-Águas men, Jaime and Andrade, show up in town and take up residence at the Barreto boarding house. Artur at first refuses to give rooms to Jaime and Andrade, but Raúl voluntarily moves to the hotel, freeing up a room for the two men and averting trouble for Mrs. Barreto. Jaime and Andrade then start their campaign against the union by forcibly evicting miners from company-owned houses in town. Mayor Túlio Corte-Real and Police Chief Celso Soares refuse to let them be evicted without eviction writs from Albate. Soares deputizes all the men in town and tells them to go home and come back with their guns.

The Renzi-Águas men then turn their attention on the strikers' camp outside town, where the miners and their families are living in tents. At night, the armed strikebreakers fire shots into the camp, injuring some strikers. The next day, they enter the camp to demand that all food and clothing purchased at the company store with scrip be turned over to them, but are thwarted by the arrival of armed hill people, whose land was taken by the coal company. Expressing disdain for the noise caused by the gunmen's automobile the night before, their presence and sympathy for the miners compels the Renzi-Águas men to leave empty-handed. The slow arrival of the union's thinly stretched strike funds tests the patience of Artur Barreto and other miners who become disillusioned and turn to violence in spite of Raúl's warnings. The miners are involved in a night-time shootout with the agents and Alex Morais is wounded. He is rescued by some hill people but not before he recognizes Guimarães as the infiltrator.

Guimarães tries to drive a wedge between Raúl and the miners by convincing a young widow, Victória Moniz, to falsely accuse Raúl of sexual assault, and he plants a letter which makes Raúl appear to be the infiltrator, leading the miners to plot to kill Raúl. Artur overhears Jaime and Andrade talking about the scheme and is discovered and threatened by Jaime. That night, while preaching at the Freewill church, Artur relates a parable about Joseph that convinces the miners that they have been deceived by a false story, taking advantage of the now-inebriated detectives. Guimarães silently slips out of the back of the church while a miner runs to the camp to stop Nicodemo Gomes from killing Raúl. Meanwhile, Morais has made his way back to town and informed the others of Guimarães's betrayal, furiously burning down his restaurant. Guimarães flees town by swimming across the Qagus River.

Later, while Artur and his friend Benigno Batista are stealing coal from the mine, they are confronted by the detectives. Artur hides, while Batista is tortured for information. He provides five names, and is killed by Andrade anyway. Guimarães mentions that the men he has named died in the mines years ago, and muses that the death of a young boy will complicate things.

The situation between the Renzi-Águas men and Chief Soares reaches a boiling point with the arrival of reinforcements with orders to carry out the evictions. The mayor tries to negotiate as Raúl comes running to try to stop the fight. The sudden movement sets off a climactic gunfight between the exposed mercenaries and the armed townspeople firing from barricades and rooftops. Soares shoots two men and survives the battle, but Raúl is killed and the mayor is shot in the stomach. Andrade is brought down, while Jaime escapes to Barreto's boarding house, where he is shot and killed by Teodora Barreto. Seven Renzi-Águas men and two townspeople are ultimately killed.

In the epilogue, the narrator (revealed to be an elderly Artur) recounts that Mayor Túlio Corte-Real succumbed to his wounds and the mayor's wife married Chief Soares. But Soares was later gunned down in broad daylight on the steps of the Dellenao Legislature Building, with Guimarães stepping up to deliver the coup de grâce. He recalls the event as the start of the Coal War.

Cast

• Isaac Faria as Raúl Lopes
• Reynaldo Sapateiro as Nicodemo Gomes
• Nicole Abreu as Teodora Barreto
• Marcelo Leite as Artur Barreto
• Atílio Serra as Chief Celso Soares
• Chico Hansousa Bento as Alex Morais
• Severino Montenegro as Andrade
• Luiz Sapateiro as Jaime
• Paulino Amaral as Head Preacher
• Luisinho Queiroz as Odilon Guimarães
• Matheus Siqueira as Mayor Túlio Corte-Real
• Calista Dias as Victória Moniz
• Josué Medeiros as Benigno Batista