Watch Serra Pelada: The Legend of the Gold Mountain For Free

Sorry, this movie sucks

Redundant and unnecessary.

Let's be realistic.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The entire film consists of interviews in Portuguese, with subtitles seemingly translated by a non-native English speaker, and archival footage sprinkled in. Although the producers did a good job weaving the interviews into chronological order, the complete lack of narration, or any explicit context (besides year numbers on the screen), makes this film exceedingly hard to follow. Save your time and find another video or article to learn about Serra Pelada.

Every single detail in the story is fascinating. In the middle of nowhere, a couple of farmers find gold in a precious mountain and, suddenly, thousands of people from all over the country start a crazy rush to get rich as much as they can, using their own hands. All of it happening during a dictatorship.

This movie was shown today as part of the Toronto Brazilian Film Fest. It tells the story of the discovery of the first gold nugget by the farmer Genésio da Silva in 1979 at the Serra Pelada (Bald Mountain) and the eventual gold rush that dominated the area. The film interviews a complete cross section of people who participated in this unique Brazilian adventure, from the various Garimpeiros that made it big with mammoth hauls of literally Kg of gold, to executives from various Brazilian government ministries and mining companies to news reporters. We see original film footage of the working day life of the miners. The shots really have the feel of a Cecil B. DeMille biblical movie, Moses trampling straw to make clay. The other side of the story is explained in that the miners or Garimpeiros each had a fair plot to work on, and although the work was hard and dirty, they got paid huge sums if they struck it rich. The gold was sold to the government directly and it was so rich that it was melted down on the spot. A fascinating portrayal of a major event in the life of North Eastern Brazil. The area is finally sold to a consortium of organizations, one of which is a mining company from Canada. Who knows what the future holds. As with all adventurers, with great gains also come great losses.