Leonardo Bastião, The Illiterate Poet

22min

In Itapetim’s countryside, deep inside Sertão do Pajeú in the Pernambuco backlands lives Leonardo Bastião in a rammed earth housing, a poet who, even without knowing how to read or write, built through his improvised metrical poetry and his relationship with the local environment an overwhelming cultural universe. After a lifetime of anonymity, videos of Leonardo declaiming authorial verses surfaced online and reached millions of views and even gave birth to a book transcribed by fans. In 2019, at the age of 74, the illiterate poet reflects on life, nature and homesickness, while scholars of popular culture try to explain the media and linguistic phenomenon that is his life and work.