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Bebo Valdes, the great 85-year-old Cuban pianist who's spent the last 40 years exiled in Stockholm, travels to Salvador de Bahia in Brazil, where Africa's music and religions have been preserved in their purest forms. Once there, he meets Mateus, a Bahian musician who acts as his guide, introducing Valdes to the life of Salvador's Afro-Bahian residents, and taking him to Candeal, a favela district which, thanks to the thrust of Carlinhos Brown and the efforts of its inhabitants, has become a special kind of community. There are no firearms or drugs in Candeal. But there is a music conservatoire, and a healthy centre and a sound studio where musicians from all over the world come to record, drawn by the drums of Candeal. Using music to drive these initiatives, Candeal's inhabitants have regained assurance and hope that a better world is possible.
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