Three blind sisters, Regina, Marie and Conceição, linked by an unusual twist of fate, spend their lives singing and playing ganzá for spare change in the street markets of poverty-stricken northeast Brazil. Their story encompasses an intricate tale of love and death, anguish and art.

Director Roberto Berliner elegantly captures the daily lives of these women, revealing their passions, their humor and their will to survive. Born to a family of migrant farm workers, the sisters spent their youth bouncing from city to city. In order to supplement their meager earnings, their mother dedicated herself to making arts and crafts while the sisters learned to sing for change in street markets and on church steps. After the their father?s death, their singing became the family?s main source of income, a family that grew and grew?at one time, the sisters were supporting fourteen people.

Berliner met the sisters in 1997 and made a seven-minute short film about them, turning them into instant celebrities. Soon they were invited to perform as professional artists and even went on tour. Berliner continued to follow them and tape their lives. The result is a captivating, inspirational journey.

Tamee Tanoor

GLOBAL LANDSCAPES