ENSLAVED LABOR IN THE 21ST CENTURY: A DECOLONIAL ANALYSIS OF THE FILM “PUREZA”

Abstract

Domination, exploitation, and inferiorization are factors intrinsic to coloniality and were explicitly used during the period of Brazilian colonization. Coloniality/modernity imposed social practices such as slave labor, but this problem is still present in the 21st century. Thus, this article aims to analyze how labor analogous to slavery represented in the film “Pureza” relates to coloniality. This is a qualitative and descriptive research carried out based on a case study of the film “Pureza”, through indirect observations, and content analysis was also used. The analysis allowed us to visualize the concepts and permanence of colonial/modern ideals that aim to obtain profit and capital from the inferiorization of people considered subordinate and marginalized. This fact is concretized from the practices of slavery identified in the film, and the living conditions of the characters are listed, including the economic situation, health, food, and precarious housing. Regarding working conditions, precarious working and salary conditions, overexploitation of labor, violence and mistreatment were observed. Thus, people like Pureza, the protagonist of the film, become fundamental for decolonial actions, in which they awaken a proposal for critical epistemology to the dominant conceptions of modernity.