Abandoned to the convent as a baby, Joaquina is about to take her vows as a nun when she learns the truth about her parentage – that her mother still lives, and her father was real-life revolutionary icon Tiradentes, who fought and died for Brazilian independence.
Direction
Elza Cataldo treats colonial Brazil with unsparing intimacy.
Acting
Cristiane Antuña's silent devastation carries entire scenes.
Director
Elza Cataldo
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Tiradentes was executed and quartered in 1792; his body parts were displayed across Brazil as warning. The film's title refers to cheap wine commoners drank—his followers' drink, not elite revolutionaries'.
Director Elza Cataldo spent years researching Tiradentes' actual descendants; Joaquina is loosely based on documented cases of children left at convents by Inconfidência families.
BR
