Arquivo

In 1977, the film Rough Diamond, written and directed by Orlando Senna, focuses on Lençóis (a small town in the Chapada Diamantina in Bahia), a site then in ruins through deteriorated mining, its only economic activity. 1977 was the bottom of the well, with a crisis that set in when the diamonds gave out in the early twentieth century. At that time, the city had as many as 30 thousand inhabitants. Of these, only 4 thousand were left, the majority in poverty. Twenty-five years later, Lençóis is, today, one of the most promising tourist centers in the country with restored housing and urbanized districts on the outskirts. For the inhabitants, recovery began with the film Rough Diamond, that showed the town to the world. Conceição Senna recorded the recollections of people present at the filming, and Diamond tells the love story of a town and a film.