Francisco Ramalho Jr.

The story of two radically different men thrown together in a Latin American prison cell. One is Valentin, a journalist being tortured for his political beliefs. The other is Molina, a gay window-dresser who fills their lonely nights by spinning romantic fantasies drawn from memories of old movies.

The practices of football in Brazil and the issues surrounding the sport. Press, players as a commodity, the popular passion, the practice on the fields of várzea. The statements of Luiz Carlos de Freitas, a young promise of Palmeiras, and Feola's coach, as well as an interview with Pelé.

On set, in the middle of the Atlantic Forest, a stressed film director begins another day of filming, reproducing the celebration of the first mass in Brazil. Suddenly three strange agents emerge from the forest and abruptly interrupt the scene. Authoritarians, they confiscate the filmed negatives. The paranoid director grumbles: "Are they from the government?". The execution of the film is compromised. Will the director in trouble be able to complete his film?

Martin and Hazel Quarrier are small-town fundamentalist missionaries sent to the jungles of South America to convert the Indians. Their remote mission was previously run by the Catholics, before the natives murdered them all. They are sent by the pompous Leslie Huben, who runs the missionary effort in the area but who seems more concerned about competing with his Catholic 'rivals' than in the Indians themselves. Hazel is terrified of the Indians while Martin is fascinated. Soon American pilot Lewis Moon joins the Indian tribe but is attracted by Leslie's young wife, Andy. Can the interaction of these characters and cultures, and the advancing bulldozers of civilization, avoid disaster?

After her parents were killed by a troupe of soldiers in search of Lampião, an outlaw living in Northeastern Brazil, Maria marries Filipe, a horse whisperer. But his nephew Coriolano soon develops an attraction for Maria, while a jealous Filipe decides to break his marriage and sends Maria away.

Cristina still lives with her mother and wants to find her true love. She looks for help in a matrimonial agency, that arranges a meeting between her and Paulo. She likes the guy, but Paulo doesn't seem too enthusiastic. As time goes by, Chico, the owner of the agency, feels he is becoming too fond of Cristina...

Adelaide Coelho da Cunha, daughter of the founder of the newspaper "Diário de Notícias", married to Alfredo da Cunha, then director of this newspaper, and mother of José, who is 20. This educated, cultured woman, falls in love with the chauffeur, who is youger than her and from a different social background. This passion leads to confronting the established order of things and the standards of social behaviour of a wife and mother. She may at the same time be heroine and victim of her own courage in deciding to make a final break from the whole family status and run off with the chauffeur. When his wife runs off with the chauffeur, Alfredo da Cunha with the aid of some of the eminent doctors of the day, has her declared irresponsible and incapable of administering her assets, and on this pretext he has her inprisoned in a mental hospital.

The tomboyish, outgoing Julieta is the daughter of a member of the Palmeiras soccer club board. She is constantly frustrated by what she sees as institutional bias against women in soccer. One day while watching her beloved Palmeiras, she is struck by a handsome man, Romeu, that she sees rooting for the Palmeiras' chief rivals, the Corinthians. After meeting the same man again in the middle of eye exam, Julieta and Romeu quickly become a couple. However, in order to avoid incurring the wrath of her parents, Romeu is forced to pretend to be an adoring Palmeiras fan, an increasingly difficult task for the die-hard Corinthiano.