Oh boy, that's a tough question to answer my man.

But it's a adaptation of a theatrical piece by Ariano Suassuna.

In the words of Suassuna himself, the character João Grilo (the short one) "fights against the rural patriarchy, the urban bourgeoisie, the police, the bandits, and even the devil".

It has a lot of religious elements and typical mannerisms of people from the northeast region of the country. It's a very good movie, i couldn't touch all his points here with my limited english.