Belarmino comprises two strands: an experiential and an interview strand, and constantly alternates between the two. Although these are carefully intertwined on both the sound and image track, they can be separated for ease of discussion.
The inhabitants of Curalha, a small village in western Portugal, perform the Passion of Jesus every year according to text from about the 16th century, a tradition upon which Oliveira stumbled during the production of a film in 1963. The film is also remembered for "a furious apocalyptic montage that links Christ's death to the violence and lunacy of the Vietnam era".