Arlindo Lopes

In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an ambitious drug dealer diving into a dangerous life of crime.

Berenice is a dedicated female taxi driver in Rio de Janeiro. She is consumed by her job and the little free time she has needs to be divided between raising her son Thiago, a teenager exploring his sexuality, and her troubled relationship with her husband Domingos, a police reporter. The scars of the worn-out relationship, ruined by her husband's violent outbursts, have erased her femininity and led her into a great existential emptiness. The murder of Isabelle, a beautiful transgender woman, on Copacabana Beach, ignites her investigative side and transforms her life.

Helen, 30 years-old, decides she is going to change the rest of her life. Her biggest mistake, she asks God for some precious help.

When witnessing a hit, Arandir, a newly married banker, tries to succor the victim, but the man, almost dead, has only time to make one last request: a kiss. Arandir kisses the man, but his act is spotted by his father-in-law Aprígio and photographed by Amado Ribeiro, a tabloid reporter.

Inspired by the moving book “Só as Mães São Felizes”, by Lucinha Araújo, Cazuza's mother, the film covers a little more than 10 years of the singer’s crazy and brief life – from the beginning of his career in the Circo Voador venue, in 1981, to the huge success and the apotheosis of his shows with the Barão Vermelho band, his solo career, his relations with his parents, friends, lovers and passions, and the courage he had to face his final years, with HIV, until his death, in 1990.

The TV film mixes documentary and drama to tell a story full of memories and great achievements from the forty-year career of the country music duo Chitãozinho & Xororó.

The passing of the years is merciless for everyone. In the film, seven seemingly ordinary characters lead their lives seeking, each one, what they believe brings personal satisfaction. But, even with different and distant lives, they come closer by the way they guide their existence based on worldly concerns.

“Nobody Leaves Alive” by André Ristum is shot in beautiful but also distancing black and white. Looking at the Venice line-up, this seems to be a trend this year among the maestros of cinema. The film is inspired by true events that took place in the last century in the “Colonia” hospital in Brazil. Whoever didn’t fit the standards of society, or their family’s perception of it, was locked away, tortured, and killed. There were altogether more than 60,000 victims. Hope dies last, and some of the inmates don’t give up the fight. We’re reminded of film classics such as “One Flew Over the Cookoo’s Nest” or “Alcatraz”.