Cruz e Sousa - The Banished Poet

In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an ambitious drug dealer diving into a dangerous life of crime.

The 43rd edition screens Neighbors, with five segments about the theme “neighbors”: not only about physical proximity, but also about relationships. In Brazil, Olga is a 90-year-old black woman who lost her husband one year ago; her neighbors, who come from different parts of the world, interrupt her grief. In Russia, an employee tries so hard to please his boss that he becomes inconvenient. An Indian woman, with the help of her male friend, decides to learn how to drive, an uncommon practice for women in the country. In China, an elderly, owner of an old and decadent barbershop, argues with his son, who wants to change the business. In South Africa, a group of homeless fights for the right to housing.

Young lovers Orfeu and Eurydice run through the favelas of Rio during Carnaval, on the lam from a hitman dressed like Death and Orfeu's vengeful fiancée Mira and passing between moments of fantasy and stark reality. This impressionistic retelling of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice introduced bossa nova to the world with its soundtrack by young Brazilian composers Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

In a Brazilian coastal village where everything seems motionless, Clarice grasps her life in a single day, unlike those she meets and who are living this day like any other. She tries to understand her obscure reality and the destiny of the people around her in a circular time that haunts and disorients.

Three lives linked by a tragic fate try to find a way out of despair.

When Ana, an influencer, crashes her car while talking on the phone, she's shipped to her grumpy grandfather's farm -- and forced into a digital detox.

The discovery of the existence of death awakens in Omar and Taú the perception that childhood is no longer what it used to be. The grandmother's imminent departure at home reveals to the Ibeji the heritage of this awareness as an ancestral meaning of life.

"A Day with Jerusa" follows Silvia, a young, mediumic market researcher facing the hardships of underemployment while awaiting the result of a public exam, and Jerusa, a gracious 77-year-old lady, eyewitness to the daily life on Bixiga, a neighborhood filled with ancestral memories. On Jerusa's birthday, while she waits for her family's arrival, the encounter between her deepest memories and Silvia's mediumship allows them to travel through time and realities common to their ancestry.

Simone is a young law student who studies criminal law and advocates for women's rights. On her free time, she's a cam girl that makes live sexual performances on the Internet. One night, she watches a video that awakens her interest in BDSM-related activities, leading her into a series of conflicts dominated by violence and eroticism.

A man who grew up an orphan finally gets to meet his father: The psychopath Dr. Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz surgeon who performed genetic experiments on concentration camp refugees during WWII.

After losing her job, an unstable woman sinks further and further into a violent fantasy world.

In a dystopian future, the Brazilian government decrees a measure that forces black citizens to migrate to Africa in an attempt to return to their origins. Seeing themselves in the center of terror, two cousins take refuge in an apartment, where they debate social and racial issues, and share the same yearning for the change of country.

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.

In a small town in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, two sisters meet again after years apart.

Everything seems to be going well in the stable relationship between Mari and Rafa, until Isis and Fred move into the apartment next door. The new neighbors make no secret of the fact that they are in an open relationship.

Centered on two young boys, an aristocrat and a native, chronicles the period in which Brazil went from colony to the center of the Portuguese Empire.

Based on the biography of Luiz Gama, one of the most important characters in Brazilian history, a black man who used the laws and courts to free more than 500 slaves. Born of a free womb, Gama was sold into slavery at the age of 10 to pay off his father's gambling debts. Even as a slave, he became literate, studied and earned his own freedom, becoming one of the most respected lawyers of his time. An abolitionist and republican who inspired an entire country.

Diego is a film director who, when he is told that he has a malignant disease which could be fatal, marries his girlfriend of many years, says goodbye to his friends and begins a routine of long days of treatment in hospital. While learning to live with the pain and also conversing with death, he meets a Hindu boy who is a fellow patient and who becomes his friend. But one day the boy disappears. Diego is discharged, but his life has changed forever. His marriage fails and, living alone, he begins to wonder whether he may in fact be dying and no one has told him. He tries to find out what happened to his Hindu friend, and eventually meets another woman.

In May 1993, Brazil experienced one of the worst economic crises in its history. The government then decides to set up a real task force to solve the problem. Confined to a bunker as a way of shielding the operations of growing political pressures, the special economic team will have to do its best to reach agreement and create the Plano Real.

Orfeu is a popular composer from a samba school. He lives in the favela and falls madly in love when he meets Euridice, a newcomer to the neighborhood. But the local drug boss Lucinho stands between them and will drastically change both their lives.

A documentarist is convinced by her son to travel to Brazil's Northeast so she can throw his dad ashes at São Francisco river.

The great battles are the backdrop for the unfolding of the Egyptian Queen's personal life. The strategy of Cleopatra is to seduce the Roman General Julius Caesar and Mark Antony to protect their civilization.

Weatherman from a TV network goes back to his hometown, Vale da Rocha, a place in Northeast Brazil, devastated by the drought. He is forced to face the geographic elements and his own memories.

Nopumoceno, the most successful businessman in the Cabo Verde archipelogo, is an ambitious, clever opportunist, known during his lifetime as "eternity single". However, he is then discovered by his illegitimate daughter to have gotten his fortune and his women in unorthodox and incredible ways

Zézé Gamboa's sardonic historical drama follows a good-hearted, apolitical con man who, on the eve of Angolan independence in the mid-1970s, pulls off a massive swindle at the expense of the Portuguese colonial administration — and soon after finds himself hailed as a hero of the national liberation struggle.

For Lete, only excess can bring back the memories she does not want to forget. But if you take away the illusion of a person, only emptiness remains.

A science fiction and suspense feature that presents a frighteningly possible future, where things got even more out of control and what would be just a "quarantine" became the new and totally bizarre normal.

Dona Hermínia will have to rediscover and reinvent herself because her children are forming new families. This supermom will have to deal with a new life scenario: Marcelina is pregnant and Juliano is getting married.

The publicist Claudio and the housewife and choral teacher Helena have been married for many years, but they do not understand and respect the feelings and view point of the partner. Claudio sees Helena as a shopper and "little teacher of a choral" and Helena sees Claudio as an insensitive and rough man. On the night before the fiftieth anniversary of Claudio, they changed places with each other.

A documentary film about the taboos, stereotypes, and struggles of black actors in Brazilian television "soaps". Based on his own memories and on a sturdy body of research evidence, the director analyses race relations in Brazilian soap operas, calling attention to their likely influence on Brazilian African-Americans' identity-forming processes.

An American director travels to Brazil and falls for a local girl.

The Spanish Infanta Carlota Joaquina is promised to D. João VI at the age of 10. Forced to leave for Portugal, Carlota suffers a great disappointment when she meets her promised prince. With the death of D. José, Carlota Joaquina and D. João VI inherit the Portuguese crown. However, frightened by the French Revolution and the approach of Napoleon's army, they decide to flee to their colony: Brazil.

This biopic documents the life and work of one of Brazil’s most prolific artists: Milton Gonçalves. This actor and director are credited with more than sixty television titles, seventy movies and twenty plays. Known from classic full-length features like Macunaíma, They Don't Wear Black Tie and Kiss of the Spider Woman, his dramatic versatility also encompasses major Brazilian soap operas, including O Bem Amado and Roque Santeiro. With his talent, he overcame barriers faced by many Black performers in Brazil. An active on-screen and on-stage presence since the 1950s, his name is synonymous with the history of Brazilian television, theatre and cinema, making him a landmark talent in the performing arts world.

Alice, a young music lover, and her best friend Socrates, go on a road trip, accompanied by Tinho, a former rocker, to play at the world's largest cover band festival.

Manuel is a crafty cowboy and swindler who lives to serve his two great loves – his fiancée Das Dô, and his mule Beija-fulô – and his business of selling unsound horses to suckers. The killer Targino arrives in town looking for a horse. Thinking that he is being clever, Manuel sells a sick horse to the assassin. Targino swears that he is going to kill Manuel, and dishonor Das Dô’s reputation after he’s dead. Under pressure, Manuel calls on the magic of Toniquinho das Pedras to protect his body. However, the witchdoctor demands the mule Beija-fulô as payment. Manuel, sees himself in the dilemma between having to choose between his fiancée Das Dô, and the mule, Beija-fulô.