Brazilian films about society

The film narrates the love between Janaína and a native warrior who, when dying, takes the form of a bird. For six centuries, the story of the couple survives through four stages in the history of Brazil: 1500, when the country was discovered by the Portuguese explorers, 1800, in events during slavery; 1970, during the high point of the military dictatorship, and 2096, when there will be a war over water.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1950. In the conservative home of the Gusmão family, Eurídice and Guida are two inseparable sisters who support each other. While Guida can share with her younger sister the details of her romantic adventures, Eurídice finds in her older sister the encouragement she needs to pursue her dream of becoming a professional pianist.

In 1980, best friends Juliano and Joaquin join the gold rush at Serra Pelada, Bald Mountain, a mountain town near the mighty Amazon river. As the town grows in numbers, it also sees an explosion in violent crime and pollution. Soon the friends' dreams of hitting the jack pot are shattered. Winner of the 2014 Cinema Brazil Grand Prize.

Donato fails in his attempt to save a drowning man, and meets one of the man's friends. He decides to start his life over, but pieces of his past keep coming after him.

After being released from prison, Dr. Nise da Silveira is back at work in a psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Rio de Janeirom where she refuses to employ the new and violent electroshock in the treatment of schizophrenics. Ridiculed by doctors, she is forced to take on the abandoned Sector for Occupational Therapy, where she would start a revolution through paintings, animals and love.

An uplifting feature documentary highlighting the transformative power of art and the beauty of the human spirit. Top-selling contemporary artist Vik Muniz takes us on an emotional journey from Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, to the heights of international art stardom. Vik collaborates with the brilliant catadores, pickers of recyclable materials, true Shakespearean characters who live and work in the garbage quoting Machiavelli and showing us how to recycle ourselves.

During the last forty years, the photographer Sebastião Salgado has been travelling through the continents, in the footsteps of an ever changing humanity. He has witnessed the major events of our recent history ; international conflicts, starvations and exodus… He is now embarking on the discovery of pristine territories, of the wild fauna and flora, of grandiose landscapes : a huge photographic project which is a tribute to the planet's beauty. Sebastião's Salgado's life and work are revealed to us by his son, Juliano, who went with him during his last journeys, and by Wim Wenders, a photographer himself.

The selfish Dr. André Luiz dies and awakes in the limbo called "Umbral". After a painful period in the gruesome swamp, he is rescued and brought in a white light to "Nosso Lar" (meaning "Our Home"). He finds a place of harmony, where people live in peace awaiting

The infamous anti-hero Marcelo Nascimento da Rocha is one of the greatest Brazilian con artists ever that has lured several persons with his schemes. The director and writer Mariana Caltabiano proposes to write his biography and to make a documentary about his life, and she is also lured by the swindler that discloses his rise and fall.

In the '40s, three brothers decide to live a great adventure and enlisting in the Roncador-Xingu Expedition, which has a mission to tame the Central Brazil. The Villas Boas brothers: Orlando, 27, Claudius, 25, and Leonardo, 23, engage in a fantastic and incredible saga. Soon start to lead the expedition that opens new paths 1,500 km, navigates over 1,000 miles of unspoilt rivers, opens 19 airfields for airplanes Army, gives rise to the creation of 43 towns and 14 make contact with wild Indian tribes, unknown, as the Xavante, courageous and feared warriors, no casualties on both sides. This adventure allows the Villas Boas brothers the creation of the Xingu National Park, the first major Amerindian reservation in Brazil, the size of Belgium, transforming them into true contemporary heroes.

Bruno is a young film editor who has just broke up his marriage with Regina, and returned living in his mother's house. Drowned in deep sorrow, something very weird happens in his life: people around him are gradually disappearing. But only for him. Some kind of blindness.

Alfonso is an old farmer who has returned home to tend to his son, who is gravely ill. He rediscovers his old house, where the woman who was once his wife still lives, with his daughter-in-law and grandson. The landscape that awaits him resembles a wasteland. Vast sugar cane plantations surround the house, producing perpetual clouds of ash. 17 years after abandoning them, Alfonso tries to fit back in and save his family.

Set in Brazil, three kids who make a discovery in a garbage dump soon find themselves running from the cops and trying to right a terrible wrong.

As a privileged teenager living in an affluent suburb of Rio de Janeiro, Jean has little to worry about beyond games, grades and girls. But as his overbearing father drags the family into debt, Jean is forced into a change of lifestyle which opens his eyes to the world beyond his 'casa grande' - not least that of the feisty, mixed-race firecracker Luiza. Cultures, classes and generations collide in this engrossing coming-of-age drama from Brazil.

Documentary depicts what happened in Rio de Janeiro on June 12th 2000, when bus 174 was taken by an armed young man, threatening to shoot all the passengers. Transmitted live on all Brazilian TV networks, this shocking and tragic-ending event became one of violence's most shocking portraits, and one of the scariest examples of police incompetence and abuse in recent years.

Bacurau, a small town in the Brazilian sertão, mourns the loss of its matriarch, Carmelita, who lived to be 94. Days later, its inhabitants notice that their community has vanished from most maps.

An adaptation of the eponymous song by Renato Russo, a famous Brazilian singer and composer who in the style of Bob Dylan knew how to delight crowds by telling stories and singing with his lyrics. Focusing on the love story of outlaw João do Santo Cristo with Architecture major student Maria Lúcia, the movie takes place in Brasilia in the early 80s. In a clash of interest, drug dealers and the police conflict with one another,while the end of the military dictatorship in the Capital of Brazil, Brasilia takes place. The wanderings and tedium of a young rocker, who lived in a city still being built, are the backdrop for this story.

In a dog-eat-dog world, Raimundo Nonato has found an alternative way to move ahead: he cooks. No matter what social strata this deceptively innocent young man inhabits, he hones his skills and sharpens his knives—and then he falls in love. Jorge's nimble comic fable provides a smartly constructed gastronomic allegory for ambition and survival.

A biography of spiritual medium and author Francisco Candido Xavier.

Life in a middle-class neighbourhood in present day Recife, Brazil, takes an unexpected turn after the arrival of an independent private security firm. The presence of these men brings a sense of safety and a good deal of anxiety to a culture which runs on fear. Meanwhile, Bia, married and mother of two, must find a way to deal with the constant barking and howling of her neighbour’s dog. A slice of ‘Braziliana’, a reflection on history, violence and noise.

In 1945, Japan surrendered to the United States and the Second World War was over. Right? Wrong. For eighty percent of the Japanese community in Brazil, Japan had won the war and defeat was nothing more than American propaganda. The few immigrants that accepted the truth were persecuted. Some were hunted down and assassinated - by their own countrymen - causing the start of a new, private war. Dirty Hearts is a thriller and love story told by the wife of one of the fanatics dedicated to preach Japanese victory. Little by little, she watches her husband, a hard-working immigrant, become an assassin and their love story fade away.

The story of Francisco, a very simple and poor man whose dream was to see his children become country music stars, and who made all the efforts to make it happen.

When they discover their town lacks funding for a sewage system, Brazilian villagers decide to make a short sci-fi monster movie about the problem.

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?

Lisbon, Portugal, 2010. Pilar, a pious woman devoted to social causes, maintains a peculiar relationship with her neighbor Aurora, a temperamental old woman obsessed with gambling who lives tormented by a mysterious past.

A story inspired by the life of one of the most remarkable figures in Brazilian popular culture, João Francisco dos Santos (1900-1976). In turn, bandit, transvestite, street fighter, brothel cook, convict and father to seven adopted children, dos Santos – better known as Madame Satã – was also a notorious gay performer who pushed social boundaries in a volatile time.

Dean and Sal are the portrait of the Beat Generation. Their search for "It" results in a fast paced, energetic roller coaster ride with highs and lows throughout the U.S.

A man is obsessed with John Travolta's disco dancing character from "Saturday Night Fever".

A small South American village is in a flurry over the Pope's 1988 visit.

São Paulo, 2007. Santana works as a dogcatcher, picking up stray animals. He is a friendly guy, averse to trouble, who has always kept violence away from the doorsteps of his home. One day, he catches a very big dog in a school. Some days later, comes the animal's owner: Babyface, a sociopath ex-cop. The man is furious, considering his dog to be "kidnapped", and demands immediate restitution of his pet. But the dog is not coming back: according to the law, the animal was put to sleep. In a misunderstanding, Babyface argue with Santana, blaming him for his pet's death. From this moment on, Santana's life will be completely changed.

André, 19, lives in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and works as a photocopier operator. He likes to see his neighbor Sílvia with a pair of binoculars. She works selling clothes. Becoming attracted to her, he tries to get nearer, and goes to her shop to buy something, but finds out that he can't afford it. So he puts the photocopier to other uses, and begins to envisage fishy schemes to earn some money.

Little Secret is a film with three interlocked stories all connected by a single secret that converge to reveal the tragic yet beautiful lives of three families and how hope, dreams and destiny can unite people from very different parts of the world.

1980s. Brazilian television exploding in color and auditorium programs not so politically correct. In the middle of this fervor, Augusto Mendes, a young rising actor, seeks his place in the sun. From porn studios to soap operas, he finally finds success and fame when he becomes "Bingo", a TV host clown from one of the audience leader TV shows for children. It turns out that behind the rice powder and red nose, nobody knows who he is.

A strange black spot approaches the coast, bringing death and destruction to a fishing village. In a desperate flight to escape the chaos, lonely Albino fights for the great love of his life at the risk of his own soul.

1942, in the middle of Northeastern Brazil, two very different men meet along the road: Johan, an aspirin salesman avoiding the German draft, and Ranulpho, a rural Brazilian seeking escape from the drought.

Leonardo is a blind teenager dealing with an overprotective mother while trying to live a more independent life. To the disappointment of his best friend, Giovana, he plans to go on an exchange program abroad. When Gabriel, a new student in town, arrives at their classroom, new feelings blossom in Leonardo making him question his plans.

Based upon the true story of Olga Benário, the German-born wife of Brazilian communist leader Luís Carlos Prestes. During the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas (1930-1945) she was arrested and sent to Nazi Germany, where she was put to death in a concentration camp. After World War II began, Vargas decided to uphold the Allies.

Paulo Coelho is the world’s most translated living author, his books having sold over 165 million copies. But he was not always the inspirational global phenomenon he is today. Like the heroes in his spiritual classics THE ALCHEMIST and THE PILGRIMAGE, he long-searched for his calling, flirting with death, escaping madness, falling in love, and making rock ’n’ roll history in Brazil, all-the-while striving for success as a writer. A wild ride through a lifetime of stranger-than-fiction adventures, PAULO COELHO’S BEST STORY is a profoundly moving film that goes straight to the heart of the most beloved literary guru of our time, revealing the most incredible wonder of all: the man behind the masterpieces.

The third episode of the Cities of Love franchise, Rio, I Love You is an anthology, created by 10 visionary directors from across the globe. The story line of each segment focuses on an encounter of love in a different neighborhood of the city, demonstrating the distinctive qualities and character of that location. The film serves to bridge gaps between cultures, educating and entertaining the audience, while celebrating unique and universal expressions of love.

Artificial Paradises tells the story of Nando and Erika, two young people in their twenties who meet several times without noticing. It tells the story of the subculture of electronic music and rave parties and drugs like MDMA.

Edgar is a young upper-middle class man, close to completing 30 years old, he lives a full life crisis and is in a position common to the vast majority of Brazilians. On the one hand the power, represented by a corrupt state, abusive and absent in their taxes before their obligations. On the other, crime increasingly organized violence became a constant in the lives of citizens in large cities. Edgar responds to all this as a modern vigilante. With the help of ingredients such as technology, counter-information and manipulation, Edgar concocts a brilliant plan, using the greed of their opponents as the reason for its destruction. As the plot unfolds, we know more about the dark past of each character as Edgar fit the pieces together in an intriguing puzzle that makes up the film's plot.

A lonely beach on the southernmost coast of Brazil is the scene for two friends, on the brink of adulthood, to explore their understanding of themselves and one another. Martin (Mateus Almada) has been sent by his father to retrieve what appears to be an inheritance-related document from the family of his recently deceased and estranged grandfather. Tomaz (Mauricio Jose Barcellos) accompanies him, seemingly hoping to regain some of their former closeness. The two boys shelter themselves in a glass house, in front of a cold and stormy sea.

Camille's life as a lonely suburban teenager changes dramatically when she befriends a group of girl skateboarders. As she journeys deeper into this raw New York City subculture, she begins to understand the true meaning of friendship as well as her inner self.

Sandro was a boy who loved to sing rap, to kiss, to stare the statue of Christ the Redeemer and dreamed to go visit Copacabana. Growing up on streets, the story culminates at the infamous episode of 12th June 2000, when Sandro hijacked bus 174.

Based on real events, and set in Rio de Janeiro, A Wolf at the Door is the nerve-rattling tale of a kidnapped child and the terror of the parents left behind. When Sylvia discovers her six-year-old daughter has been picked up at school by an unknown woman, police summon her husband, Bernardo, to the station for questioning. From that point on, the film takes increasingly sinister turns as it delves into the events that led to the girl’s kidnapping. With plot twists that will keep the audience on the edge of their seats, A Wolf at the Door is a darkly disturbing journey into the extreme limits of the human capacity for obsession and revenge.

Afro-Brazilian poet and politician, the legendary Carlos Marighella. Driven to fight against the erosion of civil and human rights following the CIA-backed military coup of 1964 and the brutal, racist right-wing dictatorship that followed, the revolutionary leaves behind his wife and son to take up arms, becoming a notorious enemy to the power structure.

Rachel is a girl, adopted by an upper middle class family, who rebelled at 17 and left her family and studies at a traditional college in Sao Paulo to become a call girl. Shortly after starting work, she decided to write a blog about her experiences. Since some clients thought she looked like a surfer she adopted the name "Surfistinha" which means little surfer girl.

Billionaire cousins Bastiano (Terence Hill) and Antonio (Bud Spencer) are two savvy businessmen, at least in one regard. They want to close a large deal, although they have to fear for their lives because of it since their competition won't even stop at murder. Therefore they have an agency find two look-alikes from the United States, stuntman Elliot Vance (Terence Hill) and the jazz saxophonist Greg Wonder (Bud Spencer). These accept the job offer, initially not knowing why they really have been hired. Nonetheless Elliot and Greg manage to fight their way through all kinds of situations without too much trouble. Additionally they quickly come to like the jet-set life. The resulting damage to their reputation provokes the Coimbras to return to Rio ahead of time. This puts them right into the sights of their enemies, alongside the cousins' look-alikes.

In 2027 Brazil, civil servant Joana mainly deals with divorce cases. As a member of a branch of evangelical Christians known as the Divino Amor group, she uses her position to offer a kind of physical therapy to couples who want to separate. Although Joana and her husband Danilo regularly consummate their marriage, neither her constant prayers nor any other methods of assistance seem to be able to fulfill their desire for a child.

Paulina is a young lawyer with a promising career in Buenos Aires, who chooses to go back to her home town. Her father, Fernando, is a well known judge. Against his will, Paulina decides to teach in a suburban high school as part of an inclusion program. One night, after the second week working there, she's brutally assaulted by a gang. With the disapproval of the people around her, she decides to go back to work, in the neighborhood where she was attacked, without realizing that her attackers may be even closer than she thought.