The Empire of Desire

A short film about the meeting of a Trappist monk and a Zen Buddhist master.

Born and raised in the misery of Brazilian slums, Jorge becomes a luxury house burglar in São Paulo and gets nicknamed "The Red Light Bandit" by the sensationalist press. In addition to wearing a red flashlight, he talks to his hostages in an irreverent tone and makes bold breakthroughs to later spend the money extravagantly. His world is the decadent neighbourhood of Boca do Lixo.

Segment "Prólogo": interviews and scenes with some of the most important filmmakers of the "Boca do Lixo" of São Paulo. Segment "A Badaladíssima dos Trópicos x Os Picaretas do Sexo": shenanigans of a troubled fictional film production. Segment "Amor 69": Actress Maria Vargas is expected to appear nude in a scene, but ultimately refuses to do so.

Daniel is a taxi driver who’s married to Adalgisa. When she starts acting in low-budget movies, he forbids her from seeing their son, Joaquim. For more than a decade, Daniel nurtures a feeling of revenge for his ex-wife, which gains strength when their now adult son finds his mother in full professional decay.

In a holiday camp, couples live situations of sex and love, in three segments: Alice, Angélica and Ana.

Country family strikes rich and move to the big city, but something changes.

Transposition of the myth of Faust to modern Brazil. The heir to a bankrupt cigarette factory, amidst a personal crisis, leaves everything behind and heads for a supposed paradise he has seen in a tourist agency, where he believes he could find self-knowledge. In his search, he is inspired by a Mephisto-like character.

Aurélia is a young black woman who works at a factory and lives in a working-class neighborhood in São Paulo, whose boyfriend Fábio gets involved with a racist neo-nazi group.

Three stories. 'Rainha do Fliper' (Pinball's Queen) Reginéia is the pinball's queen, exploited by her pimp Giba. Out of the blue, her former boyfriend Tenório comes to the arcade place seeking out Reginéia. 'Uma Aula de Sanfona' (One Class of Accordion) Bank clerk Nanci and her friend Cristina have come from Ribeirão Preto and share an apartment in São Paulo. Nanci has an argument with her lover Valdemar, and goes to her room blaming her upset on the accordian lessons that her neighbor, Durval Pereira, is giving on the floor above, but what is his secret? 'Belinha, a Virgem' (Belinha, the Virgin) The wedding day of the virgin, Belinha is rapidly approaching,. But the wedding is against the will of her fiancé's mother. When her future mother-in-law asks the parochial priest to check whether Belinha is virgin or not, the girl uses her sculptural body to resolve the situation.

Silmara, an industrial worker and a woman of exuberant beauty, supports her arsonist father and gets involved with two different pop stars, from whom she learns traumatic life lessons.

Two stories chronicle the days of the bohemian, libertine youth of 1960s Rio de Janeiro.

A naked stranger emerges from the sea to perform miracles in a nearby town and become a modern messiah whose deeds will affect the whole world.

Wannabe gangster Miguel Metralha becomes editor of a fading pornographic magazine that faces difficulties with the savage competition of similar imported magazines. His fresh ideas reshape the magazine as a whole, which is good for business, but upset the magazine's owner, a rich and powerful woman.