Brazilian jail movies

List of the best Brazilian movies about jail and prisoners, showing life and jailbreak: Brazilian Western, Estômago: A Gastronomic Story, Neon Bull, In Dog's Words, Captains of the Sands, Bald Mountain, Waste Land, Astral City: A Spiritual Journey, Rio 2096: A Story of Love and Fury, Reaching for the Moon.

In the top there are new films of 2020, a plot description and trailers for films that have already been released.

Country
Markimdb: 6.6
Genremelodrama, drama, western, crime
CountryBrazil

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.

Markimdb: 7.8
Genredrama
CountryBrazil, Italy

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.

Markimdb: 6.8
Genredrama
CountryBrazil, Uruguay, Netherlands

Iremar is part of a rodeo troupe that tours the Brazilian northeast. His task is to send bulls into the arena. Intensely exciting physical scenes alternate with contemplative episodes that sketch a painterly portrait of the members of the troupe. Sublime images, which alternate with a less idyllic reality: the hard work amidst the cows. Jointly they form a fabulous choreography, against the background of a rapidly changing society.

Markimdb: 6.6
Genredrama
CountryBrazil
Duration02:16

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.

Markimdb: 6.3
Genreadventure
CountryBrazil, Portugal
Duration01:36

About the life and adventures of a gang of abandoned street kids known as "Capitães da Areia" (Captains of the Sands), in Salvador, Bahia, during the 1950s.

Markimdb: 7
Genredrama, western
CountryBrazil

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.

Markimdb: 7.8
Genredocumentary
CountryBrazil, United Kingdom
Duration01:39

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.

Markimdb: 6.3
Genrefantasy, drama
CountryBrazil
Duration01:43

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

Markimdb: 7.1
Genrefantastic, action, fantasy, melodrama, drama, adventure, cartoon, history
CountryBrazil, USA
Duration01:38

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.

Markimdb: 6.9
Genremelodrama, drama, biography, history
CountryBrazil
Duration01:58

In 1951, New York poet Elizabeth Bishop travels to Rio de Janeiro to visit Mary, a college friend. The shy Elizabeth is overwhelmed by Brazilian sensuality. She is the antithesis to Mary’s dashing partner, architect Lota de Macedo Soares. Mary is jealous, but unconventional Lota is determined to have both women at all costs. This eternal triangle plays out against the backdrop of the military coup of 1964. Bishop’s moving poems are at the core of a film which lushly illustrates a crucial phase in the life of this influential Pulitzer prize-winning poet.

Markimdb: 7.7
Genredrama, biography, history
CountryBrazil

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.

Markimdb: 8.4
Genredocumentary, biography, history
CountryFrance, Brazil, Italy
Duration01:50

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.

Markimdb: 7
Genredrama, biography
CountryBrazil
Duration02:04

A biography of spiritual medium and author Francisco Candido Xavier.

Markimdb: 7.4
Genrethriller, drama, crime
CountryBrazil

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.

Markimdb: 6.6
Genreaction, thriller, crime
CountryBrazil

2013. During Operation Bidone, the Federal Police seized a truck loaded with palm heart, which contained 697 kg of cocaine. The investigation falls on the team assembled by Ivan Romano, based in Curitiba and composed by Beatriz, Júlio and Ítalo. The traffic connections lead them to the dower Alberto Youssef and later to the former Petrobras director Paulo Roberto Costa, who reveals an immense structure involving builders and the government, in order to divert public money. As the investigation progresses, the group led by Ivan is increasingly approaching some of the country's most influential politicians.

Markimdb: 7.3
Genredrama
CountryBrazil

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.

Markimdb: 8
Genrecomedy, drama, biography
CountryBrazil

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.

Markimdb: 7.2
Genredrama, crime, biography
CountryBrazil
Duration02:04

The true story of João Guilherme Estrella ("Johnny"), a young middle-class bon vivant who became a big-time cocaine dealer in Rio de Janeiro in the early 1990s.

Markimdb: 7.3
Genredrama
CountryBrazil, USA
Duration02:00

Luis Molina and Valentin Arregui are cell mates in a South American prison. Luis, a gay man, is found guilty of immoral behaviour and Valentin is a political prisoner. To escape reality Luis invents romantic movies, while Valentin tries to keep his mind on the situation he's in. During the time they spend together, the two men come to understand and respect one another.

Markimdb: 6.1
Genreaction, western
CountryBrazil
Duration01:46

In lawless badlands, reclusive Cabeleira sets out to discover the fate of his gunman father and grows to be a feared assassin himself.

Markimdb: 6.9
Genredrama
CountryBrazil

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.

Markimdb: 7.1
Genrethriller, drama
CountryBrazil

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.

Markimdb: 7.5
Genredrama, crime
CountryBrazil, Argentina, Italy

Carandiru, a story based on real facts and on the book written by the doctor Drauzio Varella, starts when he decides to carry out an AIDS prevention program inside Latin America’s largest prison: the Casa de Detenção de São Paulo, Carandiru, the victim of one of the darkest days in Brazilian History, when the State of São Paulo’s Military Police, with the excuse for law enforcement, shot to death 111 people.

Markimdb: 7.2
Genredrama, short, crime
CountryBrazil
Duration01:46

Best buddies Acerola and Laranjinha, about to turn 18, discover things about their missing fathers' pasts which will shatter their solid friendship, in the middle of a war between rival drug gangs from Rio's favelas.

Markimdb: 7.9
Genremelodrama, drama
CountryBrazil
Duration01:36

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.

Markimdb: 7.4
Genredrama
CountryBrazil, New Zealand

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.

Markimdb: 7
Genredrama, crime
CountryArgentina, South Korea, Brazil, Spain

Julia, a 25 year-old university student, two weeks pregnant, with no criminal record, is sent to prison. Julia murdered the father of her child. This story addresses maternity, jail and Justice; confinement, guilt and solitude; but above all it deals with Julia and her son, Tomas, born inside an Argentinean prison.

Markimdb: 6.6
Genredrama, biography
CountryBrazil, USA
Duration01:35

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.

Markimdb: 6.3
Genredrama
CountryBrazil
Duration01:38

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.

Markimdb: 6.5
Genrethriller, drama
CountryArgentina, Brazil, France

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.

Markimdb: 7.3
Genreaction, crime
CountryBrazil
Duration01:41

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.

Markimdb: 8.2
Genremelodrama, drama, short
CountryBrazil
Duration00:17

The arrival of a new student in school changes Leonardo's life. This 15 year-old blind teenager has to deal with the jealousy of his friend Giovana while figuring out the new feelings he's having towards his new friend, Gabriel.

Markimdb: 6.8
Genrefantasy, melodrama
CountryBrazil, France, Germany

Clara, a lonely nurse from the outskirts of São Paulo, is hired by mysterious and wealthy Ana as the nanny for her unborn child. The two women develop a strong bond, but a fateful night changes their plans.

Markimdb: 6.2
Genrecomedy, melodrama, drama
CountryBrazil

Lucas is a young man who lives with his religious aunt Lourdes in a quiet country town. He helps his aunt by holding religious meetings with the ladies of the area, in the living room, playing biblical songs on the keyboard. This quiet life will end as soon as the charitable aunt communicates the arrival of another nephew, Mario, just out of jail. The clash of reality between the cousins ends up causing unusual situations, and an unexpected attraction among the boys.

Markimdb: 6.9
Genrethriller, drama, history
CountryBrazil
Duration01:30

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.

Markimdb: 6.7
Genredrama
CountryBrazil

A 1980s-set drama about a teenage girl undergoing her sexual awakening when she learns about her father's infidelities.

Markimdb: 6.1
Genredrama, biography
CountryBrazil
Duration01:49

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.

Markimdb: 8.3
Genredocumentary, biography
CountryPortugal, Spain, Brazil
Duration01:57

A deeply moving story about love, loss and literature, this documentary follows the days of José Saramago, the Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist, and his wife, Pilar del Río. The film shows their whirlwind life of international travel, his passion for completing his masterpiece "The Elephant's Journey", and how their love quietly sustains them throughout.

Markimdb: 6.7
Genrecomedy, melodrama, drama
CountryArgentina, Brazil

Ivana Cornejo is just getting used to being single again after her divorce three years ago. After an exasperating call from her ex-husband, she throws her cell phone away. Fortunately, the man who finds it calls her to return it, and to her amusement they have an instant rapport. The man on the other end of the phone is León Godoy, a renowned architect with a charming voice and a charismatic personality. They schedule a date so that he can return the cell phone. When León arrives, Ivana is surprised: he is everything she had imagined, except for one unexpected and startling detail... he’s only 4'5" tall.

Markimdb: 7.9
Genredrama, crime
CountryBrazil
Duration02:08

10-year-old Pixote endures torture, degradation, and corruption at a local youth detention center where two of its members are murdered by policemen who frame Lilica, a 17-year-old trans hustler. Pixote helps Lilica and three other boys escape and they start to make their living by a life of crime which only escalates to more violence and death.

Markimdb: 7.2
Genredrama, music, biography
CountryBrazil

Biopic of Brazilian singer Tim Maia, from his childhood in Rio de Janeiro until his death at age 55, including his passage by the US, where he discovers a new style of music and is arrested for theft and drug possession.

Markimdb: 8
Genredrama
CountryBrazil, France
Duration01:53

An emotive journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.

Markimdb: 6.5
Genremelodrama, drama
CountryBrazil
Duration01:36

Two brothers develop a very close relationship as they are growing up in an idyllic and happy family. When they are young adults their relationship becomes very intimate, romantic, and sexual.

Markimdb: 6.8
Genredrama
CountryBrazil

Pierre is seventeen and in the middle of puberty. He plays in a band, has sex at parties and secretly tries on women’s clothing and lipstick in front of a mirror. Ever since his father’s death, his mother Aracy has looked after him and his younger sister Jacqueline, spoiling them both. But when he discovers that she stole him from a hospital when he was a new born baby, Pierre’s life changes dramatically. In her new film, director Anna Muylaert explores the mother-child relationship through the eyes of a rebellious son whose whole world unravels overnight.

Markimdb: 6.9
Genredrama, crime
CountryItaly, Brazil, Germany, France, Sweden, USA

Pio Amato, a 14 year-old member of a small Romani community in southern Italian town of Gioia Tauro in Calabria, is in a hurry to grow up. Pio follows his older brother Cosimo everywhere and from him he learns how to hustle and how to navigate the streets of his hometown. One night Pio sets out to prove to his brother that he is as good or better than him but, when things go wrong, a series of events will forever change the way he sees the world.

Markimdb: 6.8
Genredocumentary
CountryBrazil

The documentary tells the story of Sidney Magal's 50-year career. The most significant moments in the life of the singer, dancer, actor and voice actor who has become an icon of Brazilian popular music. The man behind the idol, from the point of view of the participants in the story.

Markimdb: 7.2
Genreaction, drama, adventure, western, crime
CountryFrance, Brazil, West Germany, USA

Cowherd Manoel and his wife are on the run in the drought-plagued and violent Brazilian badlands of 1940 after he kills a rich grazier. Moving credulously from one allegiance to another, they finally learn that the land belongs neither to God nor the Devil, but to the people.

Markimdb: 6.2
Genrebiography
CountryBrazil

The story of Allan Kardec, from his days as an educator to his contribution to the spiritist codification.

Markimdb: 6.6
Genredrama
CountryParaguay, France, Germany, Norway, Brazil, Uruguay, Italy
Duration02:24

After her girlfriend is imprisoned on fraud charges, Chela is forced to face a new reality. Driving for the first time in years, she begins to provide a local taxi service to a group of elderly wealthy ladies. As Chela settles into her new life, she encounters the much younger Angy, forging a fresh and invigorating new connection.

Markimdb: 3.8
Genrecomedy
CountryBrazil

Two friends, filmmaker Miguel and actor Rodrigo, win the grand prize of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival. After drinking too much, Rodrigo signs a lifetime contract to star in Miguel's next film. Miguel mysteriously disappears and comes back ten years later proposing to make a delirious film retelling his adventure in the years he'd been gone. Rodrigo is already famous and fears risking his career, but he has no alternative but to comply.




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