Semiarid Paradise

Semiarid Paradise

2026 · 84 min · Documentary

In 2007, while filming the documentary O Tempo e o Lugar, Genivaldo Vieira da Silva, known as Geno, a former activist with the Pastoral Land Commission, the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), and the Workers’ Party (PT), said he intended to move within three years from Inhapi, Alagoas, where he had always lived, to his property in Santa Brígida, Bahia, which he described as his “paradise.” Seventeen years later, Genivaldo had still not made the move to his promised land. The documentary seeks to understand why, while also exploring Geno’s spiritual side and the reasons behind his new political choices.

Directed by Eduardo Escorel · Written by Eduardo Escorel

Your Rating

Cast

Make it a double feature

2h 54m together

Semiarid Paradise

A Fera na Selva

Both from Eduardo Escorel.

More from Eduardo EscorelSee all →

Twenty Years Later

Twenty Years Later · 1984

Twenty Years Later

MovieDocumentaryHistory

Eduardo Coutinho was filming a movie with the same name in the Northeast of Brazil, in 1964, when there came the military coup. He had to interrupt the project, and came back to it in 1981, looking for the same places and people, showing what had ocurred since then, and trying to gather a family whose patriarch, a political leader fighting for rights of country people, had been murdered.

They Don't Wear Black Tie

They Don't Wear Black Tie · 1981

They Don't Wear Black Tie

Otavio is an idealistic union leader trying to organize workers at a factory to resist the company's exploitative practices. His son, Tião, one of the employees, is more of a realist and doesn't want to risk losing his job by striking. This clash of perspectives puts the father and son at odds. Fortunately, Tião's mother, Romana, is on hand to act as a moderator between the two opinionated men.

A Fera na Selva

A Fera na Selva · 2017

A Fera na Selva

A story about a man who hopes to see something extraordinary. Based upon the book of Henry James.

The Edge of Democracy

The Edge of Democracy · 2019

The Edge of Democracy

MovieDocumentary

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.

In the Intense Now

In the Intense Now · 2017

In the Intense Now

MovieDocumentary

A personal essay which analyses and compares images of the political upheavals of the 1960s. From the military coup in Brazil to China's Cultural Revolution, from the student uprisings in Paris to the end of the Prague Spring.

Entranced Earth

Entranced Earth · 1967

Entranced Earth

Eldorado, a fictitious country in America, is sparkling with the internal struggle for political power. In the eye of this social convulsion, the jaded journalist Paulo Martins opposes two equally corrupt political candidates: a pseudopopulist and a conservative. In this context, Paulo is torn between the madness of the elite and the blind submission of the masses. But, in this complex tropical reality, nothing really is what it seems to be.

Babenco: Tell Me When I Die

Babenco: Tell Me When I Die · 2020

Babenco: Tell Me When I Die

MovieDocumentary

Besieged by cancer and nearing the end, the genius Argentine-Brazilian filmmaker Héctor Babenco (1946-2016) asks Bárbara Paz, his wife, for one last wish: to be the protagonist of his own death.

Two Lost in a Dirty Night

Two Lost in a Dirty Night · 2002

Two Lost in a Dirty Night

In New York City, an illegal immigrant gets into trouble because of his relationship with a self-destructive prostitute.

Behave

MovieDocumentary

In Rio de Janeiro, over many days, the director Maria Ramos witnesses and films the judgment of several teenagers accused of stealing, trafficking and murdering. Underage youths are protected by the Brazilian laws and their faces can not be exposed; therefore, they are replaced by teenagers from poor communities.

The Priest and the Girl

The Priest and the Girl · 1966

The Priest and the Girl

MovieRomanceDrama

In a small town in Minas Gerais, the arrival of a young priest causes a commotion in the conservative atmosphere of the place, aggravated by the sudden attraction this priest feels for a beautiful girl. This forbidden love affair soon turns into an unbridled passion.

Macunaima

Macunaima · 1969

MovieComedyFantasy

Born a fully grown black man in a village in the Brazilian jungle, Macunaíma later magically transforms into a white man before making an adventure-filled trip to the city of São Paulo. Once there, he becomes something of a dandy, falling in love with Ci, a revolutionary who dies in an accidental bombing. After robbing a ruthless industrialist, Macunaima returns to his village where he finds his newly acquired knowledge and possessions of little use.

Antonio das Mortes

Antonio das Mortes · 1969

Antonio das Mortes

A new incarnation of Cangaceiro bandits, led by Coirana, has risen in the badlands. A blind landowner hires Antônio to wipe out his old nemesis. Yet after besting Coirana and accompanying the dying man to his mountain hideout, Antônio is moved by the plight of the Cangaceiro’s followers. The troubled hitman turns revolutionary, his gun and machete aimed towards his former masters.

Erotic Stories

Erotic Stories · 1980

Comedy in 4 segments. In "Arroz e Feijão" (Rice and Beans), owner of a boarding-house seduces her young countryboy tenant. In "As Três Virgens" (The Three Virgins) three spinsters are influenced by the behaviour of their teenager niece, whom they are lodging. In "O Arremate" (The Purchase) a colonist turns his virgin daughter in to a landowner, to have his debts forgiven. And, finally, in "Vereda Tropical" (Tropical Trail), a man becomes sexually obsessed by a watermelon, to the point of having sexual intercourse with it. The stories are based on prize-winner short stories, from a Playboy contest.

This Is Pelé

This Is Pelé · 1974

MovieDocumentary

The Lion Has Seven Heads

The Lion Has Seven Heads · 1971

The Lion Has Seven Heads

A white-robed preacher wanders and sermonizes across African lands; European communists and CIA spies conspire out of mutual self-interest to engineer the appointment of an African bourgeois to a puppet government presidency; and a revolutionary group marches in exile.

Tropical Paths

Tropical Paths · 1977

In the island of Paquetá, professor investigates the genital vocation of vegetables and fruits, maintaining sexual relations with a watermelon. In his experiences, he counts on the interlocution of an attentive student.

More Like This

Fahrenheit 9/11

Fahrenheit 9/11 · 2004

Fahrenheit 9/11

MovieDocumentary

Michael Moore's view on how the Bush administration allegedly used the tragic events on 9/11 to push forward its agenda for unjust wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth · 2006

An Inconvenient Truth

MovieDocumentary

A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.

Return

MovieDocumentary

This is a documentary linking ecological and political problems. The planet has come to be less important than the multinational earnings, and with it politicians earnings as well. With this project we bring foreward this problem, witch not only affects the third world, but is a worldwide situation witch needs to be adressed.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter