A man remembers forty-eight crucial hours in his life when, as a child, he visited his mother, the favorite woman of an important politician, in a bordello owned by him, right before some important political changes in 1937 Brazil. In those hours, he discovers his own sexuality.
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.
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.
Solange is a recently married young woman whose wedding night did not end well. After constant fights with her husband, she decides to live through her sexual frustration by sleeping with strangers she picks up on crowded buses in Rio de Janeiro.
Duda is a zoo cleaner. He and his friend Kiko and Zeca are actively engaged in an animal protection group. For this reason, they are summoned by mystic Noé to fight animal hunters in the Pantanal region, in Brazil, who are after animal skins and furs, and are led by the mean Morel. They accept the mission and, on their way, meet archaeologist Marcos and photographer Carla, who are in search of a lost pyramid built by the Phoenician. Together, they try to beat the hunters.
Quilombo dos Palmares was a real-life democratic society, created in Brazil in the 17th century. This incredibly elaborate (and surprisingly little-known) film traces the origins of Quilombo, which began as a community of freed slaves. The colony becomes a safe harbor for other outcasts of the world, including Indians and Jews. Ganga Zumba (Toni Tornado) becomes president of Quilombo, the first freely elected leader in the Western Hemisphere. Naturally, the ruling Portuguese want to subjugate Zumba and his followers, but the Quilombians are ready for their would-be oppressors. The end of this Brave New World is not pleasant, but the followers of Zumba and his ideals take to the hills, where they honor his memory to this day. Writer/director Carlos Diegues takes every available opportunity to compare the rise and fall of Quilombo with the state of affairs in modern-day Brazil.
A public relations man is invited to guide an American millionaire during his stay in Rio de Janeiro. He gets involved in the most bizarre situations, from orgiastic mega-parties to confrontations with the police, meetings with drug dealers and movie stars, facing corruption and even murder.
Fleeing from the orphanage where he was living, young Valdo immediately entered the life of the crime, establishing himself as a dangerous adult criminal. However, his petty thefts do not satisfy him and he longs for bigger things and when he becomes a lover of Beth, the young criminal realizes that he can enrich himself very and very fast.
In this highly stylized Brazilian drama a sax player fondly remembers one wonderful night spent with his life's love and decides to find her again. He embarks upon a quest through the wild streets of Rio to find her. Along the way he meets an assortment of odd urban underworld characters.
Middle-aged married journalist goes to the beach resort of Búzios, in Brazil, to write a book. Gradually, he falls in love with his neighbor's daughter, a beautiful teenager much younger than he, ignoring the social implications.
Poor people who live in the slums in Rio de Janeiro decide to occupy an empty apartment building in the rich part of the city. Meanwhile, a rich girl falls in love with a poor composer. Based on the musical play "Pobre Menina Rica", by Vinícius de Moraes and Carlos Lyra.
An ubiquitous folk singer narrates the tale of a young boy, who apparently becomes immune to gunfire after his mother arranges for him to have an amulet bearing Ogum's blessings. As time goes by, he becomes a valuable member of a mobster's hit-team, but ends up joining a group of people who resist his original employers.
Marked by her father's strong presence, since he is a rich and powerful businessman, the beautiful Berenice investigates his love life, to feel closer to him. With her findings, their relationship becomes mixed with a strong sense of seduction.
A man explores the process of formation of sexuality and is looking for a woman that does not exist.
Eternamente Pagu is a biographical film about Patrícia Galvão, best known as Pagu, a Brazilian political, literary and artistic activist. An important figure of the Brazilian Modernism, Pagu was also a militant for the Brazilian Communist Party after she married writer Oswald de Andrade. She broke up with Andrade and, as a journalist was arrested by the Dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas. After she left prison, she abandoned Communism in favor of Trotskyist Socialism, married Geraldo Ferraz, and started a career as theatre director.
The romanced story of Xica da Silva, a slave that used her "feminine atributes" in order to get power.
A girl from the countryside goes to the city of Belém to take part in the Círio de Nazaré celebrations. Led to prostitution, she wishes to move to the wealthiest Southeast region of Brazil. In a dance club, she meets a truck driver that transports wood. Dreaming with the big city, she asks for a ride, and the two begin a journey through the Trans-Amazon road. In tension with the Brazilian military authorities of the time, the film registers several aspects of the Amazon social tragedy – forest fires, slave work and child prostitution. Awarded in several international festivals, the film was forbidden by the Brazilian censorship. It was only released years later, winning the Brasília Film Festival in 1981.
When a pedestrian is hit by a bus, the simple clerk Arandir runs and kisses the moribund in a gesture of sympathy and unconditional pure love. Opportunist photographer Amado Pinheiro witnesses the scene and sees the opportunity to sell newspaper and, together with the despicable and abusive chief of police Cunha, accuses Arandir of homosexuality.
Drawing inspiration from a poem penned by Castro Alves, this film vividly captures the political, cultural, and intellectual climate of Brazil during the late 1970s. At its core, the story revolves around four distinctive embodiments of Christ's image: a black man, a soldier, an Indian, and a guerrilla fighter. These courageous individuals, hailed as the harbingers of doom in the tupiniquim lands, valiantly combat the insatiable avarice and oppressive "civilizing" brutality propagated by the formidable John Brahms—a foreign exploiter devoid of morals.
Noronha is a low middle-class civil servant who lives with his frustrated wife Gorda and their three elder daughters. The youngest one, virginal Silene, is unexpectedly sent back home. Noronha discovers she has been expelled from boarding school for having killed a female cat and her seven newborns in a hysterical fit. Many dark family secrets will emerge from that episode leading to tragic events.
