City of Jah! Check it out!

Seriously. Tell me. What does Jamaica have? How can a tiny Caribbean island have produced not only a series of divine sounds (like ska and reggae) and an idol who is practically beatified (Bob Marley), but also dance, attitude, philosophy and even hairstyles that spread across the entire world and are still knocking on our doors today? To try to answer some of these questions and unravel the enigma of a place that has a "natural mystic in the air," as Marley once sang, watch the cult Jamaican film "Rockers." Or better yet, watch it, rewatch it, take a peek before leaving home, another before going to bed and, if it's not too much trouble, fall asleep holding it.

Produced in 1977 and now released on DVD in Brazil through Trama, "Rockers" is soooo cool and works like a kind of magic ring. You put the disc on your finger, press "play," shout "Jah rastafari!" and dive, for about 90 minutes, into the almost always impenetrable Jamaican universe. Truly impenetrable. For proof, the film has English subtitles because, without them, almost nobody would understand the patois (local language).

The story goes like this: Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, playing himself, is a reggae drummer who decides to fight against the Kingston studio mafia. To do so, with the help of a newly purchased motorcycle, he sets out to distribute his friends' records, avoiding the middlemen. However, his work and involvement with the daughter of a local magnate (also a mobster) lead to his motorcycle being stolen and him being beaten up. After recovering, he gathers his crew to seek revenge and justice. And ends up becoming a kind of local Robin Hood.

But of course, that's not all. The charm of "Rockers" lies in how director Theodore Bafaloukos captured life in the Kingston ghettos circa 1977, the same time punk was imploding rock. Everything is light and naturally real, from the locations to the performances, without makeup, without caricatures. There isn't an actor pretending to be a typical Jamaican black man, that is, proud, tough and playful. Those who are there are the real deal.

Colors and sounds are everywhere. And the details make the film worth its weight in gold. After all, much of the cast is made up of real reggae musicians. So you watch the film and cross paths with a Robbie Shakespeare here, a Gregory Isaacs there, a Burning Spear further ahead. And don't be fooled: these guys are as brilliant as any big name in jazz or soul music, but our myopia and the cultural crushing that the Big Brother of the North imposes on us don't allow us to see this clearly. What can you do?

Keep watching "Rockers," whose camera also wanders through several recording studios, street dances led by MCs and driven by legendary sound systems, and even vinyl pressing factories. Believe it and have faith: hip hop, house, drum'n'bass and so many other current styles are direct offspring of this universe. And without any pretension of explaining this or that, the film also focuses on Rastafari culture, its passion, its religious fervor, its philosophy, its contradictions and its captivating quest for justice and redemption. Throughout the film, the rasta is shown as the outsider, the renegade, execrated by society because of his long hair (the famous dreadlocks) and his sacred worship of an herb that man decided to call wicked.

And don't watch everything from a distance. You can get close to the screen. What is portrayed in "Rockers" — which has one foot in "Black Orpheus" and another in "City of God" — is very familiar to (almost) all of us: the favelas, the violence, the natural musicality, soccer, the street hustler...

Moments that stay in the mind and are worth countless replays: Burning Spear singing "Jah no dead" a capella. Kiddus-I performing "Graduation in Zion" accompanied by a band featuring Earl "China" Smith (guitar) and Robbie Shakespeare (bass). And above all, the scene in which "Horsemouth" and a friend crash a fancy party, kick the DJ out of the booth and force a reggae set. Remove-ya! Film rating? Five lions of Judah!