In the First Republic (1889-1930) as well as in the Vargas Era (1930-1945) the traditional terreiro communities were criminalized, their religious leaders were persecuted and their sacred objects were seized. In Rio de Janeiro, more than 200 objects were seized by the police, and after the end of the official criminalization, they became part of the collection in the Museum of Civil Police. The documentary The Sacred within us deals with the past of persecution towards traditional terreiro communities, the "Black Magic" collection found in the Police Museum, the difficulty of access to the collection by religious, researchers and the population in general, as well as the struggle for to release the sacred objects that have been in the possession of the Civil Police of the State of Rio de Janeiro for 100 years.

An ethnographic and experimental approach to the multiple cultural manifestations of Exu, Orixa/God of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé