Abraccine's The 100 Best Brazilian Films

Adrift in the vast expanse of the ocean, a solitary boat carries three castaways—a man and two women. Stranded and devoid of any glimmer of rescue, they find solace in recounting the tales of their lives to one another. As they delve into their personal narratives, reminiscing about the circumstances that led them to this desolate predicament, t...

The movie follows Antonio as he witnesses the descent of common rural worker Manuel into a life of crime, joining the gang of Antonio's sworn enemy, Corisco the Blond Devil (Othon Bastos), and the Pedra Bonita Massacre.

Vidas Secas tells in vivid images the almost documentary like story of a drover and his family in the north eastern Spain during the drought. A family in the search of a new hope and destiny.

Eduardo Coutinho was filming a movie with the same name in the Northeast of Brazil, in 1964, when there came the military coup. He had to interrupt the project, and came back to it in 1981, looking for the same places and people, showing what had ocurred since then, and trying to gather a family whose patriarch, a political leader fighting for r...

In un immaginario Paese dell'America Latina, un intellettuale di sinistra viene ferito a morte dai militari e inizia a rievocare il passato e le relazioni politiche ed affettive che ha intessuto durante la propria vita.

The story of a famous Brazilian criminal, called The Red Light Bandit because he always used a red flashlight to break in the houses during the night. Working alone, he also used to rape his female victims.

A man lives in conflict as he deals with his friends and love interests against the backdrop of São Paulo.

City of God is one of the most successful Brazilian films of all times. It depicts the raw violence in the ghettos of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970’s that even had young kids carrying guns and joining gangs when they should be playing hide-and-seek.

Zé is a very poor man whose most prized possession is his donkey. When his donkey falls terminally ill, Zé makes a promise to Saint Bárbara: If his donkey recovers, he will carry a cross - like Jesus - all the way from his city to Saint Bárbara's church, in the state capital. Upon the recovery of his donkey, Zé leaves on his journey. He makes it...

As aventuras de Macunaíma, o herói sem nenhum caráter, e suas andanças por um Brasil em transformação. Um compêndio dos mitos, lendas e da alma do brasileiro, a partir do clássico romance de Mario de Andrade.

Central do Brasil is a Brazilian film from Walter Salles about the relationship between an old and bitter woman and a young orphan boy.

The life of a boy on the streets of Sao Paulo, involved with crimes, prostitution, and drugs.

documentary | short

Union leader's son doesn't want to engage in a strike, because his wife is pregnant, thus disregarding his father's tradition of political activism.

The lives of the residents of a Brazilian apartment building and the security guards who get the job guarding the surrounding streets.

Brazilian baroque. The young son that ran from his dominant family, descends into decadence and then returns to the nest. With melodramatic themes of tyrannical fathers, incest, fierce family conflicts and an overheated and intense visual style to match

Following a newspaper ad, ordinary women tell part of their life stories to director Eduardo Coutinho, which are then re-enacted by actresses, blurring the barriers between truth, fiction and interpretation.

The Caravana Rolidei rolls into town with the Gypsy Lord at the mike: he does magic tricks, the erotic Salomé dances, and the mute Swallow performs feats of strength. A young accordion player is completely enamored of Salomé, and he begs to come along. The Gypsy Lord shrugs, and the accordionist and his pregnant wife, Dasdô, join the troupe.

Based on true events in Rio de Janeiro, in 1960, when a gang having the infamous outlaw Tião Medonho as a leader performed a sensational railroad hold-up on a train carrying a small fortune.

The story of Paulo Honório, a poor ploughman who becomes a rich farmer. Obsessed by his desire to get even richer, he doesn't pay much attention to his wife, Madalena, a teacher who reacts against his tyrannical ways.

Truck driver travelling along the Transamazonic Road, a huge highway in Brazil that crosses the Amazon forest, meets a prostitute and slowly becomes aware of the problems in that region.

Two friends take two prostitutes for a night of pleasure. But the night turns out to be frustrating for all involved, as much bitterness is revealed in their conversation and attitudes, uncovering their anguish and deeper feelings, and the emptiness of their lives.

A group of armed soldiers is sent to the Northeast of Brazil in an attempt to stop a famine-struck population from invading and stealing a food deposit in the dry backlands. While the alienation and insanity of people driven to hallucination by their latent hunger is conducted by the predictions of a religious figure, a truck driver observes the...

A man kills his wife on their wedding night, after discovering she had been unfaithful. After being acquitted, he moves to the country, where he becomes part of a love triangle.

An anonymous urban protagonist experiences a series of absurd situations--including a crazy cab ride, an encounter with a wacky criminal gang, and lots of gunplay--infused with a unique anarchic energy, eventually suggesting our true animal nature.

Augusto Matraga is a violent agressive farmer who, after being betrayed by his wife and trapped by several enemies, is beaten up and left for dead, being rescued by a couple of humble small farmers who nurse him for a long time until he is well again. Influenced by the couple, Matraga starts a long penitent life while waiting for his hour and ch...

Set during an oppressively hot day in Rio de Janeiro, the film follows five young Black boys who sell peanuts to survive, moving through different parts of the city-from wealthy beachfront neighborhoods to impoverished favelas. As they navigate their daily routines, the story weaves together multiple encounters with tourists, football fans, midd...

The daily lives and routine of 37 families living in a huge 12-story building in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro: their drama, aspirations, intimate revelations, loneliness, dreams...

In the 1930s, novelist and politician Graciliano Ramos is accused of being a communist sympathizer. He is then arrested and sent to the Ilha Grande prison, where he experiences the disturbing treatment reserved for common prisoners.

In 1997, before the visit of the pope to Rio de Janeiro, Captain Nascimento from BOPE (Special Police Operation Battalion) is assigned to eliminate the risks of the drug dealers in a dangerous slum nearby where the pope intends to be lodged.

Based on a Carlos Drummond de Andrade's peom, the movie is about a affair between a priest and a girl in a little and so conservative town.

Carapiru is a member of one of Brazil's remaining indigenous peoples, living in harmony with nature and making wise use of the local flora and fauna. But Carapiru is suddenly forced to fend for himself and flees into the nearby rain forest, building a new life for himself with the help some sympathetic settlers. However, after rebuilding his lif...

Documentary about Santiago, a peculiar man who used to work for the director and his parents as a butler. The material was filmed in 1992 but, for some strange reason, the director felt he couldn't edit it and put it aside. In 2005 he remembers the unfinished film and starts its edition.

In this sequel to "Black God, White Devil", Antonio das Mortes must return back to action after killing the last of the Cangaceiros 29 years ago, when a new outlaw appears, who will eventually reveal as an idealist and mark him profoundly.

After a bloody invasion of the BOPE in the High-Security Penitentiary Bangu 1 in Rio de Janeiro to control a rebellion of interns, the Lieutenant-Colonel Roberto Nascimento and the second in command Captain André Matias are accused by the Human Right Aids member Diogo Fraga of execution of prisoners. Matias is transferred to the corrupted Milita...

Two businessmen hire a hitman to kill their third partner and are then blackmailed by the hitman as he takes over their company.

When womanizer Paulo meets a friend’s fiancée, she changes the way he looks at the opposite sex. He falls in love, and believes she is in fact all women in one. Because of that, he has to face an important decision: to go on with his old life, or embrace this special relationship and become a monogamous man.

A man living with his parents in a low middle-class apartment in Rio de Janeiro coldly stabs them with a razor and then goes to the movies. Marcia, a rich and dissatisfied young woman, takes advantage of a trip from her husband to go to her home in Petrópolis, where she receives a visit from an old friend, Regina.

After the death of her handsome but good-for-nothing husband Vadinho, Flor, a widow, marries Dr. Teodoro, a respectable gentleman. Hilarity ensues when Vadinho's spirit returns into her life.

Upon learning that his rich dad is on the brink of bankruptcy, spoiled Vavá summons his friend Jandir with a plan to get some quick cash: they will blackmail an uncle of Vavá by taking compromising photos of his lover, Leda.

An UFO that could be the Russian satellite Sputnik falls on a hillbilly's hencoop.

Macabéa has just moved to the big city after her aunt, who raised her, died. She gets a job as a typist and moves into a boarding house with three other women. In her spare time, she listens to a radio station called Time; on Sundays, she likes to ride the metro. Then she meets Olímpico, a northeasterner like herself, who has dreams of becoming ...

Spider, a banker, lives with three women. This tycoon is a caricature of Brazil's bourgeoisie, his trajectory is the starting point for an essay on the mental underdevelopment of Brazilian elites, in which black humor sets the tone for sharp criticism.

Schizophrenic tramp performs outrageous acts in the streets of Salvador, and in the end tries to fulfill his ultimate dream: to fly over the city, as a superhero would.

Transposition of the myth of Faust to modern Brazil. The heir to a bankrupt cigarette factory, amidst a personal crisis, leaves everything behind and heads for a supposed paradise he has seen in a tourist agency, where he believes he could find self-knowledge. In his search, he is inspired by a Mephisto-like character.

A gravedigger prowls the city in search of a female to bear him a son.

After the death of her mother, a young Brazilian decides to leave his country and travel to her native land. In a foreign land, he finds love and danger.

Ângela Carne e Osso (Angela Meat and Bone), a young nymphomaniac, lives surrounded by delinquents, and exerts intense allure on them, dominating them all with her erotic power.

A talented songwriter of sambas is forced to face the social injustices of the city around him.

50 years of Brazilian history seen from the point of view of a friendship among two intellectuals.