Limite
Auteur Mário Peixoto’s sole cinematic work is a haunting silent film following three people who’d rather die at sea than continue on land. If you’re looking to trace the roots and reach of Brazilian cinema, Limite must be on your path.
From the archive
Motel Destino
Karim Aïnouz’s neon-lit 2024 thriller is his most visually distinctive work yet, stirring up a tense, caged love story and an increasingly dangerous power struggle in the surreal environs of a seedy roadside motel.
Medida Provisoria / Executive Order
Lázaro Ramos’ 2020 dystopian speculative thriller unpacks the racist past and present with a nightmare scenario in which Brazil tries to excise its Black population with a mass deportation order.
Flores Raras / Reaching for the Moon
A latterday offering from the legendary LC Barreto stable, unfolding the bittersweet love story of Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares and American poet Elizabeth Bishop against the backdrop of the incoming Brazilian dictatorship.
Abril Despedaçado / Behind The Sun
One of the earliest feature films from Walter Salles (I’m Still Here), this is a dreamy, parched meditation on the wasteful futility of revenge.
Terra Em Transe / Entranced Earth
Glauber Rocha’s thundering polemic on the corruption inherent in politics; banned in the early years of Brazil’s dictatorship, it stands as one of his most compelling works.
Bacurau
Kleber Mendonça Filho’s delirious genre-bender is a modern classic, escalating from thoughtful social drama to weird, ultraviolent revenge Western.