Dona Xêpa

For a long time a couple exchanged love letters, he living in the Northeast and she in Rio de Janeiro. One day he goes to the wonderful city together with a colleague, but he soon faces a problem: since he has sent the girl a photo of someone else, he is afraid to approach and reveal who he really is. At the same time, the colleague has a falling out with a girl who defends rock 'n' roll tooth and nail.

As soon as his boss discovers his betrayal, Luciano must flee, abandoning his life in the mafia and crime behind him. His options are limited, and the longer he waits, the greater the chances of being captured. However, when Luciano encounters a prostitute with a serious illness, he finds shelter in her home and begins to devise a plan to save his own life.

Maos Sangrentas translates to Bloody Hands in English, and that's just what this gruesome Brazilian melodrama delivers. The story begins when a gang of dangerous convicts escape from a penal colony. With the police in hot pursuit, the escapees cut a gory swath through the countryside. As his comrades are killed off one by one, the leader of the group descends into gibbering madness. In contrast to this, a subplot develops involving the least dangerous of the escapees, who murdered his wife in a peak of self-righteous rage and is now seriously in doubt about the wisdom of his deed. Principal scenes reworked in 1962 to make the film The Violent and the Damned (q.v.).

The project of urbanization of a shantytown is endangered by lack of money. To get the necessary sum, three friars start to sing in plain clothes, incognito, also recording records and doing shows in nightclubs.

A great mystery surrounds Leonora, and it becomes even more mysterious when a stranger arrives from Buenos Aires looking for her, saying he knows her. In love with her, he is desperate when they say she is dead. Not believing what they say, he continues his search. But upon finding her, he is faced with a cruel and unexpected enigma.