Cartola: The Samba Legend

A cautionary tale for these times of democracy in crisis—the personal and political fuse to explore one of the most dramatic periods in Brazilian history. With unprecedented access to Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Lula da Silva, we witness their rise and fall and the tragically polarized nation that remains.

Paulete, the star of a daring theater group, is visited by his military brother-in-law, the young Fininha. A torrid relationship arises between the two, and now the soldier must deal with the prevailing repression during the Brazilian military dictatorship.

A Lebanese photographer living in Brazil in the '30s manages to film the band of Lampião, a legendary Brazilian bandit.

The history of Simião Martiniano.

Weatherman from a TV network goes back to his hometown, Vale da Rocha, a place in Northeast Brazil, devastated by the drought. He is forced to face the geographic elements and his own memories.

The lives of a macho butcher, his wife, a lonely waitress, a sadist and a flophouse manager intersect in Recife, Brazil.

Zizo, a radical and anarchist poet living in a marginal quarter of Recife in the north eastern state of Pernambuco, distributes his social angst-filled thoughts through a publication named Febre do Rato, and spews poetry to anyone who’d listen. Our character always revolves within the universe that he has created around himself. A very particular world, in which satisfying the unfortunate is a mixture of a kind of benefit with high dose of malice.

The quiet life of the small town Piedade's inhabitants is shaken up by the arrival of a big oil company, which barges in taking over houses and local businesses, throwing everyone out, to better reach and use the area's natural resources.

A man falls in love with a teenage girl, who is exploited by her own grandfather, who sometimes takes her to a gas station to show her naked to whomever pays him some money.

Elias is a handsome young deputy manager in a garment factory in São Paulo. When he’s not working, he enjoys casual encounters in the big city. The arrival of a young African, Fernando, on the production line piques his interest and Elias finds himself increasingly drawn into socialising with his work colleagues.

Returning early from his vacation after the Carnival period to investigate the murder of a young French tourist, Breno Wanderley is faced with possible reflections of his own history from which he cannot escape. Between Ash Wednesday and post-Carnival Sunday, Breno tries to unravel the crime and sees in his son, also called Breno, a chance to reinvent himself in a broken and sullen city.​

The story of Santinho, a young man who has been exalted to the position of a saint in a remote riverine community of the upper Amazonas state, after performing a “miracle” upon the suicide of his own mother. The film seeks to be an intimate picture of those who are involved in this sect and of the infinite human capacity of “fabricating” faith and seeking some sense in the horrifying experience of death.

Vitória and her son, Cristiano come back to their hometown Desterro, running away from a troubled life in the city. She asks her brother Balbino for shelter. The arrival of mother and son brings the town’s secrets and forgotten stories back to light, in strange, mysterious ways. Cristiano’s journey of self-discovery through the town’s ghostly entrails sets him in a collision course with the most powerful man in town: his uncle.

On mythical Augusta Street, in San Paulo (Brazil), a journalist who seeks answers for his angst dives into the world of prostitution and neo-Shamanism rituals.

A man returns to his hometown and resumes a dangerous old affair...

A young doctor has a promising career in São Paulo, but the diagnosis of a serious illness profoundly changes her relationship with the world around her.