Discoveries from Brazil World Cinema

Amid the civil-military dictatorship implanted with the 1964 coup, Sergio Muniz had the idea of making a documentary about the action of the Death Squad. At the time, the press still had some freedom to disseminate the work of these death squads formed by police officers of various ranks, and that he acted on the outskirts of cities like Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The victims of police repression (as today) were men, poor and black, and this condition is supposed criminals.

Father Fernando, a tormented theology professor, encounters images of past and forbidden desires as he follows an enigmatic woman in black. Based on the Symbolist universe of Cruz e Sousa.

Cirio de Nazare, a huge catholic event in Belém, Brazil, narrated as Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.

Shot on the farm of the Director's grandfather, the short film "Remember me?" shows how certain places can be sources of great inspiration and nostalgia.

A meeting between two friends and an unknown attraction. The borderline between the real and the imagined, the inside and outside, friendship and love, one body and another. Prism is the story of a connection between surfaces that being in touch wakes the shattered power of feelings.

Musical drama that uses popular myths of Brazilian culture to narrate a story full of meetings and misunderstandings, betrayals and loves, crimes and punishments. Against the backdrop of the Pernambuco backlands – its people and its culture, the cordel, the bandits, the cinema and the circus – the film is a universal drama, laden with unique poetry, where reality and the dreamworld mingle.

Videogibi: A Ilha Misteriosa is a 1999 Brazilian animated film, based on the homonymous comic book by Mauricio de Sousa. It was distributed by Publifolha and produced by Mauricio de Sousa Produções.

Léo finds an old photograph dated the same day he was born. Intrigued, he sets off in search of what he thinks is a fragment of his past.

Neide recently separated from her husband and wants to make the most of her single life. Hindered by her youngest son, she decides to set him up with one of her employees by hook or by crook

In a small Nepalese village nestled in the heart of a forest populated by wild elephants, Pirati is the matriarch of a Kinnar community. She dreams of escaping to a “normal” life with the man she is in love with. But when one of her daughters disappears, she must investigate and choose between love and responsibility to her community.

After witnessing his father being killed in front of him by a gang of outlaws, a young boy grows up determined to learn how to shoot and make a plan for his revenge with the help of his uncle and his girlfriend. In the midst of his plan, the bandits imprison men and women in a dungeon, subjecting them to the most cruel tortures, rapes and acts of evil.

A young woman, a teacher in a countryside school, has affairs with boys and girls.

Theater director asks his actors for a research on human cruelty and misery in Brazil, while trying to raise funds for his next production, a play based on a story by Machado de Assis, "A Causa Secreta" (The Secret Cause). The troupe oblige and go around town witnessing long lines in National Health Services, inhuman conditions in public hospitals and poor people being constantly humiliated. They find people are becoming indifferent to human suffering.

“Echoes of Silence” is a psychological drama that explores the limits of pain, guilt and denial, where the memory of a broken relationship becomes a mental prison. The story brings to light human frailty and the need to deal with grief, while the fine line between what is real and what is fantasy blurs with every scene.

A couple argues. She doesn't know what he hides.

'Falas da Terra' sheds light on the plurality and the struggle of the indigenous people for the right to exist, in a historical rescue of valuing their cultures.

The truths and consequences of the actions of two siblings.

Issues that make gender identity a social construct are exposed through the relationship between a teenager, a mother and the place where they live.

Flavio Danillo is a personal trainer whose students attend him at the gym. At home, Flavio works his body into a state of decay. Suddenly, his body no longer responds his mind taking over control.

A holiday special aired by TV Cultura in which Júlio, who would later become the protagonist of Cocoricó, makes his first appearance in an adventure to find his beloved stuffed lion, Leo.

João (Gustavo Vaz) and Mariana (Andreia Horta), a couple in love who have their relationship interrupted in an untimely manner. Five years after their abrupt separation, he decides to go with his gut and sets off on a long bike journey to try to convince her that the romance should never be over. The love, which still exists between the two, is then called into question.

Forty years separate Maria Eugênia, or Maê, a writer from Pernambuco based out of France, from the couple Miguel and Lúcia, who has just celebrated their 40-year anniversary. Maê's return uncovers old doubts and suspicions. Miguel, a sociology professor and former political prisoner, wants to face the truth, and Lúcia, his life partner who has dedicated herself to getting him out of prison, wants to escape from it. From the point of view of these three main characters we learn about political events.

It portrays the historical trajectory of Montes Claros over more than four centuries, from the bandeirante expeditions and the establishment of Fazenda de Montes Claros to its consolidation as an important regional hub in northern Minas Gerais. The documentary highlights the cultural resilience of traditions such as Congado, Catopês, and Marujada, while revisiting significant events, including the Revolta do São Francisco and the political conflicts of the 1930s. By bringing together history, culture, and development, the work reveals how the city preserves its backlands roots and ancestral memory even amid the transformations of modernity.

Through a hypnotic ritual, a group of frogs delve into their past traumas, forcing them to confront their deepest fears.

Jaiane now lives in Brazil, while Aissa, a Mozambican sailor who has just arrived in the city, tries to have a real experience on dry land. A story of unconventional passion follows.

The Method shows and reveals the knowledge and tools used by great documentary filmmakers on the challenge of representing the reality.

A rich heiress arrives in Belo Horizonte from Buenos Aires to receive her fortune. After visiting her late mother's grave and picking up a rose there, she begins to receive constant phone calls from an unknown caller demanding the flower back.

A compilation of three stories charged with sexual tension: A man taking revenge on a friend who got involved with his cheating wife, a woman being abandoned by her boyfriend and couple taking things in bed a bit too far.

Rival brothers, both on and off the field, must unite after their mother falls ill. Amidst football, secrets, and old grudges, living together forces them to confront toxic family patterns.

A group of historians and a businessman split up in search of a treasure hidden around 1842 in the south of Brazil.

In the wake of a carnival parade the river washes a corpse onto the shore. A crime has been committed, a mystery blossoms to life, and the legend of mythical cursed diamond is tantalizingly revived.

A marginal version of Brecht’s piece, “Baal”.

Clara directs the rehearsals of a theatrical play about Fernando Pessoa while constantly seeking the right man and the love of his life. One of the actresses is the lesbian Ana, who interprets the poet Mário de Sá Carneiro. She is Clara's friend and confidant with whom she shares an apartment. Clara does not perceive Ana's love for her, that always helps her to recover from the disappointments. Unlike the character Sá Carneiro, poet of decadentism, nostalgia, metaphysics and vague, Ana is the pragmatic side of Clara, who often brings a disillusioned vision as if it were Fernando Pessoa himself, who may be associated with concepts of the poet's heteronyms.

After the sudden break up of a relationship, a young man tries to make a film using the images of his ex-girlfriend that he had on his camera.

Cargas D’Água” is an authorial and regional Brazilian musical written and directed by Vitor Rocha (author of Casusbelli) which, because it does not need great resources and has a short duration, is nicknamed “a pocket musical”. It's a story that begins right in the middle of Brazil: in the hinterland of Minas Gerais. A boy loses his revered mother and ends up forgetting his own name, because his stepfather, now the only member of the family, only calls him “kid”. But everything changes when he makes a friend, nothing ordinary, a fish, and starts to see his whole story with different eyes. Now he has a mission: to take his friend to see the sea.

Adaptation of the angelic war in 11+11+1 segments.

Biela, a humble young woman, born and raised in an isolated farm, is brought to a small town to live with her bourgeois cousins, her only relatives. Once in town, she encounters great difficulty adapting to city life.

At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the clown Nanaca and his team of circus performers find themselves trapped inside the circus, unable to do what they love most, which is bringing joy to people. As time goes by, hunger begins to plague the circus family, who are looking for a way to survive in the midst of the pandemic, but they have to face the fury and brutality of the police chief of the city where the circus is closed.

Documentary explores the life stages of different people.

Returning its activities in the middle of the pandemic, a theater company tries to record a play. But one of the actors hears the news that David, one of his colleagues, died. While the news fills the theater halls, the actors react to it differently and David's presence is reconstructed through mourning.