In 1919, a British scientific expedition arrived in Sobral, Ceará – a city in northeastern Brazil – to document a solar eclipse. For a month, astronomers set up camp to conduct the photographic experiment that would ultimately confirm Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. Black Sun revisits this scientific event from the perspective of Sobral’s inhabitants, for whom the eclipse sparked fears of apocalyptic events and floods – a suspicion fueled by a mix of deep-seated religiosity and superstition.
The film, shot in the archives of the Eclipse Museum and the Dom José Museum, examines the tensions between the progress of scientific knowledge and the city’s socio-economic realities. The story unfolds through a duel of improvised verses by two local musicians, who sing about the expedition and the cosmic phenomenon, reinterpreting power dynamics and local anxieties. Through their verses, facts, rumors, and inventions blur together, using oral tradition as an allegorical lens to piece together a reimagining of this historical event.
