If Nothing Else Works Out

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

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 Military Police and Nascimento is exonerated from the BOPE by the Governor.

When truck racer Roger loses everything, he receives a tempting but dangerous offer: to work as the getaway driver for a gang of thieves.

While waiting for a kidney transplant, a young pianist finds an unexpected connection with her doctor — and the courage to fulfill her musical dreams.

Best friends Deco and Naldinho co-own a cargo boat in Brazil's Salvador da Bahia. They give a ride to a sultry prostitute named Karinna, and soon both men fall prey to her considerable sexual charms, pushing the bounds of their friendship to the limit.

When a doctor decides to carry out an AIDS prevention program inside Latin America’s largest prison: the Casa de Detenção de São Paulo – Carandiru, he meets the future victims of one of the darkest days in Brazilian history.

From a repressive childhood to artistic revolution, Ney Matogrosso transforms Brazil's stages — and himself — through music, creativity and inner fire.

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.

At the age of nine, Rebeca is sold by her grandmother to the bookseller who ran Rocinha. Disputed by bicheiros and drug dealers, the community is going through changes in power. Rebeca becomes the wife of the chief drug dealer and, with the death of her partner, his successor. The electrifying trajectory of crime, violence, drugs and love of a female drug kingpin in Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro in the 1980s.

Julia and Sérgio set out in search of Rebeca, a missing cycling activist, moving through Brasília, a city marked by silence and unresolved histories. Their investigation leads them to forgotten tragedies, where ruins, memories, and unsettling presences begin to intertwine. Blurring the line between the real and the fantastic, Mapas unfolds as a journey through ghosts of the past that continue to echo in the present.

Carlos is a man doomed by restless memories, that meets with himself, in a time warp. Young Carlos faces the forgetfulness of old Carlos, who doesn't recognize his own appearance. They get a package. But the package seems odd. The knot that ties, the smell, the handwriting on the envelope: this could only be sent by his father, Ernesto, who has been dead for many years. A father who always created unusual situations. In this time warp, Carlos is split in two: one Carlos remembers and the other forgets the moments he spent with his father.

Camila is in her mid-twenties and her life has been thrown into chaos ever since her boyfriend threw her out of their apartment during a bitter argument. Camila's ambition is to become a writer, and she posts regularly on her blog, entitled "Camila Jam." However, Camila wants to take her work into a different direction, and she throws herself head first into life in search of inspiration. As Camila struggles with alcohol, unsettled emotions and relationships with abusive men, it becomes increasingly obvious that her skills as a writer aren't all she needs to sort out if she wants to truly understand her life and her career.

Jessica, Sabrina and Daiane have dreams, just like all young people of any social class or place in the world. They live in a low-income neighborhood in the periphery of Rio de Janeiro and find in prostitution a way to survive and satisfy their consumer desires. However, even faced with the trials of absolute uncertainty and lack of hope, Jessica, Sabrina and Daiane insist on loving, having fun and planning their future.

A road movie that follows a solitary man as he sets of on a journey to the south of Brazil. The strange characters and absurd situations he encounters along the way present an extraordinary portrait of human relations.

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

Luísa is a romantic, dreamy and delicate young woman married to Jorge, an engineer, a man of good habits and good economic conditions. They didn't know each other well, but got married and Luísa was a good wife, "she was clean and happy as a bird". Everything get changed when she meets a childhood love, her cousin Basílio. What seemed to be a great adventure will became a nightmare and Luísa will discover the price of her infidelity.

A young architect embarks on an ambitious real state development project in Brasília, convinced that he could actually help transform people’s lives and build a new form of society. But his utopia begins to fall apart when his dreams get in the way of corporate corruption and personal interests.

In northern Brazil, Hermila patiently waits for her husband. However, he has abandoned her. Sexy, restless and resolute, she raffles off "a night in paradise" with herself. This beautifully-shot portrait doesn't shy away from the burdens of a young scarred woman, but it also celebrates her courage to live according to her own rules.

Silmara, an industrial worker and a woman of exuberant beauty, supports her arsonist father and gets involved with two different pop stars, from whom she learns traumatic life lessons.

The story of Francisco, a very simple and poor man whose dream was to see his children become country music stars, and who made all the efforts to make it happen.

Russas, a small town in northeastern Brazil, is the home of Pacarrete, a grumpy retired dance teacher who dreams of getting a big shot and starring at a dance spectacle for the whole town to see. She's close to fulfilling that dream, but not without overcoming a few impediments along the way.

Freely inspired by the work Catatau, by Paulo Leminski, the plot begins with the historical hypothesis imagined by the poet from Curitiba: “What if René Descartes had come to Brazil with Maurício de Nassau?” The film materializes this hypothesis and joins the father of modern philosophy in his journey through the tropics. Under the effect of hallucinatory herbs, he investigates questions revolving around geometry and optics in the face of an absolutely strange world. Known for his famous sentence “I think, therefore I am”, Descartes faces his doubt towards phenomena reason doesn’t explain. René, Renatus, Re born.

A film that chronicles the lives of Tatiane, who leaves São Paulo trying to rebuild her life; Odair, a young man exploring his sexuality after leaving his parental home; and Henry, a Haitian immigrant struggling to survive amid Brazil’s poverty. As chaos unfolds in Rondônia, their paths will cross.

1942, in the middle of Northeastern Brazil, two very different men meet along the road: Johan, an aspirin salesman avoiding the German draft, and Ranulpho, a rural Brazilian seeking escape from the drought.

The border between Brazil and Paraguay: living on opposite sides of a big river, Brazilian boy Joca falls in love with indigenous-Paraguayan girl Basano. A magical tale of impossible love and adventure in this land full of memories of colonial wars and indigenous genocide.

On mythical Augusta Street, in San Paulo (Brazil), a journalist who seeks answers for his angst dives into the world of prostitution and neo-Shamanism rituals.

The story of Brazil’s first emperor, returning to Europe on board the English ship Warspite. The trip makes Pedro conquer his fears and face his life from a personal point of view. He goes back in time and relives outstanding moments of his earlier life – since his childhood, when in 1808 he arrived coming from Portugal with his family, until he left in the dead of the night, in 1831, running away from Brazil.

When the Netuno Circus returns to Fernando de Noronha, it brings back a young man with a turbulent past. Pedro is now Zolah, the human cannonball. When secrets surface, bizarre family reunions rival the circus performances.

Before entering a prestigious American university, Gabriel Buchmann decides to travel the world for one year. After ten months on the road with his backpack full of dreams, immersed at the heart of various countries, he arrives in Kenya determined to discover the African continent. Until he reaches the top of Mount Mulanje, Malawi, his final destination.

Raquel is a religious teenager who moves with her father to a small town in search of a new life. During her first days there, she has a mysterious experience which leads her to believe she’s been given an important and controversial mission by God.

As teenagers, Mari and Caio were great friends. Seven years later, they meet again for an important event in Caio's life and he has a surprising proposal for her, which could change both of their lives.

Two seventeen-year-olds go out at night looking for a good time in the streets of São Paulo and end up discovering a lot about them selves and their hidden feelings.

In a dark and decadent area of São Paulo, the exiled Americans Rosso and his son Paul own a brothel. Paul is a compulsive gambler addicted in cocaine and his father is married with the former prostitute Angie, and they have a little son. When a client is killed by his wife in their establishment, they find a suitcase with drugs.

Walter is an absent father and husband who works in a hospital without time for his family. His redemption happens when his wife sends him to the birthday cake for her daughter, but she does not know is that during the return trip home, the impossible will happen so that everything goes wrong.

Décio is a winning horse trainer who works at the Rio de Janeiro’s Jockey Club, where Lena runs an indebted coffee shop that she inherited. Worried about her financial situation and having to take care of her younger brother who is in a wheelchair, Lena never smiles. In love, Décio must overcome his shyness to get close to her, especially with him being only 1.20m tall. He will do anything to get Lena's attention, including becoming a comedian, just so he can see Lena smile.

In 1965, a year after the military coup in Brazil, an oasis of freedom opened in the country's capital. The Brasília Film Festival: a landmark of cultural and political resistance. Its story is that of Brazilian cinema itself.

Ruy, a solitary surveyor, travels the harsh Pernambuco. His life is transformed when he meets three women from a mambembe circus, Madrinha, Jéssica and Diadorim. Through the history of these four characters, "Mambembe" deals with chance while reflecting on artistic construction.

Mia is a self-centered witch who possesses an unusual power: whoever kisses her falls in love with her or falls back in love with the last person they loved. In one of her jobs, however, she ends up falling in love with the woman she was supposed to cast a spell on.

In an arid and poor region of Brazil, bikers search for a miracle to make it rain and save the land, risking their lives.

Afonso is a university professor and a single father to his son Benedict. One day, they decide to take a trip together, but face problems when their car breaks down. They are helped by four very beautiful telemarketing operators who take them back to São Paulo.