Othelo, The Great

Synopsis

“Othelo, The Great” is a documentary about Sebastião Bernardes de Souza Prata, aka Grande Otelo, one of Brazil’s greatest actors and comedians. Black, orphaned, and the grandson of slaves, Othelo escaped poverty to forge a career that broke every imaginable barrier for a black actor in the first half of the 20th century, working with filmmakers such as Orson Welles, Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, Werner Herzog, Julio Bressane, Marcel Camus, and Nelson Pereira dos Santos, among many others. As he became acclaimed by the public, he was also stigmatized by countless controversies. And while the media took advantage of his polemics, Othelo used that space to shape his own narrative and discuss the systemic racism that haunted him for eight decades, two dictatorships, and over a hundred films.