Stories of Samba (2024)

Estômago: A Gastronomic Story

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.

Mary

A miraculous conception. A merciless king. A murderous pursuit. Mary's journey to give birth to Jesus unfolds in this biblical coming-of-age epic.

Meu Sangue Ferve por Você

In 1979, Brazilian singer Sidney Magal is at the peak of his career. On a TV show, he meets Magali and, enchanted by the young woman, decides to win her over. But, in order to do that, he will have to overcome the resistance of his manager, Jean Pierre, and the distrust of her family, friends and even Magali herself.

Doppelgänger

Silvia is a young teacher at an elementary school. One day, her class is interrupted when the students notice her double walking on the other side of the street. Silvia tries to ignore the apparition, but this strange event begins to permeate her daily life and transform her pesonality.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Mill Valley, Pennsylvania, Halloween night, 1968. After playing a joke on a school bully, Stella and her friends decide to sneak into a supposedly haunted house that once belonged to the powerful Bellows family, unleashing dark forces that they will be unable to control.

Godzilla Minus One

In postwar Japan, Godzilla brings new devastation to an already scorched landscape. With no military intervention or government help in sight, the survivors must join together in the face of despair and fight back against an unrelenting horror.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Following their explosive showdown, Godzilla and Kong must reunite against a colossal undiscovered threat hidden within our world, challenging their very existence – and our own.

Joker

During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.

The Thing

In the winter of 1982, a twelve-man research team at a remote Antarctic research station discovers an alien buried in the snow for over 100,000 years. Soon unfrozen, the form-changing creature wreaks havoc, creates terror... and becomes one of them.

Dune

Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet's exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence-a commodity capable of unlocking humanity's greatest potential-only those who can conquer their fear will survive.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for adventure has taken its toll: He has burned through eight of his nine lives, leaving him with only one life left. Puss sets out on an epic journey to find the mythical Last Wish and restore his nine lives.

John Wick

Ex-hitman John Wick comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters that took everything from him.

Top Gun

For Lieutenant Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell and his friend and co-pilot Nick 'Goose' Bradshaw, being accepted into an elite training school for fighter pilots is a dream come true. But a tragedy, as well as personal demons, will threaten Pete's dreams of becoming an ace pilot.

Doctor Strange

After his career is destroyed, a brilliant but arrogant surgeon gets a new lease on life when a sorcerer takes him under her wing and trains him to defend the world against evil.

Soul

Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful audition at the Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body and is transported to the You Seminar, a center in which souls develop and gain passions before being transported to a newborn child. Joe must enlist help from the other souls-in-training, like 22, a soul who has spent eons in the You Seminar, in order to get back to Earth.

Call Me by Your Name

In 1980s Italy, a relationship begins between seventeen-year-old teenage Elio and the older adult man hired as his father's research assistant.

My Neighbor Totoro

Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.

Tenet

Armed with only one word - Tenet - and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.

Se7en

Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the "seven deadly sins" in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next. The seasoned Det. Somerset researches each sin in an effort to get inside the killer's mind, while his novice partner, Mills, scoffs at his efforts to unravel the case.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

After reuniting with Gwen Stacy, Brooklyn’s full-time, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters the Spider Society, a team of Spider-People charged with protecting the Multiverse’s very existence. But when the heroes clash on how to handle a new threat, Miles finds himself pitted against the other Spiders and must set out on his own to save those he loves most.

Oppenheimer

The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.

The Menu

A young couple travels to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Thirty years after defeating the Galactic Empire, Han Solo and his allies face a new threat from the evil Kylo Ren and his army of Stormtroopers.

The Equalizer 3

Robert McCall finds himself at home in Southern Italy but he discovers his friends are under the control of local crime bosses. As events turn deadly, McCall knows what he has to do: become his friends' protector by taking on the mafia.

The Revenant

In the 1820s, a frontiersman, Hugh Glass, sets out on a path of vengeance against those who left him for dead after a bear mauling.

The Whale

A reclusive English teacher suffering from severe obesity attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption.

Poor Things

Brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist, a young woman runs off with a lawyer on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, she grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

In 1926, Newt Scamander arrives at the Magical Congress of the United States of America with a magically expanded briefcase, which houses a number of dangerous creatures and their habitats. When the creatures escape from the briefcase, it sends the American wizarding authorities after Newt, and threatens to strain even further the state of magical and non-magical relations.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter

The crew of the merchant ship Demeter attempts to survive the ocean voyage from Carpathia to London as they are stalked each night by a merciless presence onboard the ship.

Three Thousand Years of Longing

A solitary scholar discovers an ancient bottle while on a trip to Istanbul and unleashes a djinn who offers her three wishes. Filled with reluctance, she is unable to come up with one, so the djinn tries to inspire her with his stories.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Paul Baumer and his friends Albert and Muller, egged on by romantic dreams of heroism, voluntarily enlist in the German army. Full of excitement and patriotic fervour, the boys enthusiastically march into a war they believe in. But once on the Western Front, they discover the soul-destroying horror of World War I.

Prey

When danger threatens her camp, the fierce and highly skilled Comanche warrior Naru sets out to protect her people. But the prey she stalks turns out to be a highly evolved alien predator with a technically advanced arsenal.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks on a dangerous journey inside the camp's walls.

Gattaca

Vincent is an all-too-human man who dares to defy a system obsessed with genetic perfection. He is an "In-Valid" who assumes the identity of a member of the genetic elite to pursue his goal of traveling into space with the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation.

Parasite

All unemployed, Ki-taek's family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.

May December

Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under the pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past.

Beauty and the Beast

A live-action adaptation of Disney's version of the classic tale of a cursed prince and a beautiful young woman who helps him break the spell.

Barbie

Barbie and Ken are having the time of their lives in the colorful and seemingly perfect world of Barbie Land. However, when they get a chance to go to the real world, they soon discover the joys and perils of living among humans.

Hustle

After discovering a once-in-a-lifetime player with a rocky past abroad, a down on his luck basketball scout takes it upon himself to bring the phenom to the States without his team's approval. Against the odds, they have one final shot to prove they have what it takes to make it in the NBA.

Smile

After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can't explain.

Kowloon Castaway

A lonely detectorist’s search for love brings him to a tiki bar. Set partly in the iconic Kowloon Restaurant in Saugus, Massachusetts, Kowloon Castaway is a fun look at love in the modern world.

Linha de Passe

In the periphery of São Paulo, the pregnant single mother Cleuza works as maid in the apartment of a middle-class family. Each of her sons has a different unknown father: the oldest, Dênis, has a baby son that lives with his mother and he works as motorcycle courier.

The Groomsmen

Blue-collar Paulie prepares for fatherhood and his forthcoming wedding to Sue by hanging out with his groomsmen. Brother Jimbo, cousin Mike, and his pals fill the reunion with drinking, boys-will-be-boys antics and a few unexpected personal confessions. But, when the bonding devolves into accusations and regret, Paulie has to decide whether he's ready to tie the knot and take this big step into adulthood.

7 Prisoners

An impoverished teen seeking to escape the clutches of a human trafficker must weigh living up to his moral code against his struggle to survive.

Ghost Town

Bertram Pincus, a cranky, people-hating Manhattan dentist, develops the unwelcome ability to see dead people. Really annoying dead people. Even worse, they all want something from him, particularly Frank Herlihy, a smooth-talking ghost, who pesters him into a romantic scheme involving his widow Gwen. They are soon entangled in a hilarious predicament between the now and the hereafter!

Clean, Shaven

Peter Winter is a young schizophrenic who is desperately trying to get his daughter back from her adoptive family. He attempts to function in a world that, for him, is filled with strange voices, electrical noise, disconcerting images, and jarringly sudden emotional shifts. During his quest, he runs afoul of the law and an ongoing murder investigation.

Zodiac

The Zodiac murders cause the lives of Paul Avery, David Toschi and Robert Graysmith to intersect.

Striptease

Bounced from her job, Erin Grant needs money if she's to have any chance of winning back custody of her child. But, eventually, she must confront the naked truth: to take on the system, she'll have to take it all off. Erin strips to conquer, but she faces unintended circumstances when a hound dog of a Congressman zeroes in on her and sharpens the shady tools at his fingertips, including blackmail and murder.

The Accused

Out drinking one night after a fight with her boyfriend, three men brutally rape Sarah Tobias in a bar while people watch and cheer. District Attorney Kathryn Murphy takes the case; however, she allows the rapists to receive a mild sentence. A distraught Sarah decides to seek punishment for the men who witnessed and encouraged the rape. To get justice, Sarah must take the stand and revisit the night of her attack.

Have I Got a Christmas for You

Members of a town's Jewish community decide to substitute for their Christian friends and neighbors so they can enjoy Christmas. The good folk humorously attempt jobs they have never done before.

After Hours

Desperate to escape his mind-numbing routine, uptown Manhattan office worker Paul Hackett ventures downtown for a hookup with a mystery woman.

Carandiru

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 when the State of São Paulo’s Military Police, with the excuse for law enforcement, shot to death 111 people. Based on real facts and on the book written by Dráuzio Varella.

I Can Do Bad All By Myself

When Madea catches teenage Jennifer and her two younger brothers looting her home, she decides to take matters into her own hands and delivers the young delinquents to the only relative they have: their aunt April. A heavy-drinking nightclub singer who lives off of her married boyfriend, April wants nothing to do with the kids.

On That Night

Minna and Leo run into each other by chance at a bar. As they walk together throughout the evening, sharing conversations and quiet moments, something begins to form between them.

Bliss

A mind-bending love story following Greg who, after recently being divorced and then fired, meets the mysterious Isabel, a woman living on the streets and convinced that the polluted, broken world around them is just a computer simulation. Doubtful at first, Greg eventually discovers there may be some truth to Isabel’s wild conspiracy.

Time of Fear

Year 2006. There are riots in São Paulo. In the middle of the violent situation, widow Lucia is trying to get her young son Rafael from prison.

Attached

While on a date, Sarah has a fight with her boyfriend which ultimately ends in a break-up. Driven emotional, Sarah decides to try her luck with another guy at the bar unaware that there is something bit more sinister behind his attention.

Nina

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

APOTHEOSIS 85

In 1985, a spy risks everything to stop a conspiracy that threatens to prolong the dictatorship in Brazil. While facing the military, she becomes involved in a forbidden romance with the heiress of a megacorp.

Red White & Blue

A woman attracts the attention of a psychotic former Army interrogator and an emotionally fragile young man caring for his ailing mother.

Confessions of a Brazilian Call Girl

Rachel is a girl, adopted by an upper middle class family, who rebelled at 17 and left her family and studies at a traditional college in Sao Paulo to become a sexy call girl. Shortly after starting work, she decided to write a blog about her experiences. Since some clients thought she looked like a surfer she adopted the name "Surfistinha" which means little surfer girl.

I'm Still Here

In 1971, military dictatorship in Brazil reaches its height. The Paiva family — Rubens, Eunice, and their five children — live in a beachside house in Rio, open to all their friends. One day, Rubens is taken for questioning and does not return.

Black Orpheus

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.

Neo New Jersey

A night in the life of two blacklight gossip queens in the year 2999.

Next Door

Berlin, the Prenzlauer Berg district. Daniel is a movie star accustomed to success. His loft apartment is stylish and so is his wife, and the nanny has the children under control. Everything is tip-top, bilingual and ready for him to jet off to an audition in London where a role in an American superhero film awaits the celebrated German-Spanish actor. Popping into the local bar on the corner, he finds Bruno sitting there. As transpires by the minute, Bruno has been waiting for this moment for a long time. And so this eternally overlooked man – one of reunification's losers and a victim of the gentrification of what was once East Berlin – takes his revenge. With Daniel as his target...

1961

In 1961, father and son travel to Porto Alegre. Their severance leads both to unknown realities.

Brasil, Vermelho-Amarelo

Plot unavailable

Francisco

Plot unavailable

Air Bridge

Bruno and Amanda have to face the difficulties of a long distance relationship after meeting in a flight forced into an emergency landing.

I Saw the TV Glow

Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate Maddy introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.

Queer

1950. William Lee, an American expat in Mexico City, spends his days almost entirely alone, except for a few contacts with other members of the small American community. His encounter with Eugene Allerton, an expat former soldier, new to the city, shows him, for the first time, that it might be finally possible to establish an intimate connection with somebody.

Shinjuku Midare Machi: Ikumade Matte

The story of a group of artistic people centred around a bar in Shinjuku.

Katie Fforde: Wie Feuer und Wasser

Plot unavailable

The Florentine

A slice-of-life story unfolds inside The Florentine, a bar in a Pennsylvania steel town whose brightest days are behind it, leaving behind many of life's disillusioned "losers." Its owner, Whitey (Michael Madsen), is deep in debt to the town's loan shark, Joe McCollough (Burt Young), and desperate for a path forward which won't cost him the bar. His sister, Molly (Virginia Madsen), is days away from her long-awaited nuptials, and then her former fiancé, Teddy (Tom Sizemore), shows up in town for the first time since leaving her at the altar years before. Ne'er-do-well Billy Belasco (Jim Belushi) runs a con on Frankie (Luke Perry) to steal the money for the wedding caterer, while long-time regular Bobby (Chris Penn) becomes a patron-cum-inhabitant as he hides from his fast-crumbling marriage to Vikki (Mary Stuart Masterson). Every plot in this multi-layered story seems to be at its nadir just as a pair of unlikely heroes emerge out of the backdrop to turn everything around.

The Simplest Thing in the World

The short film deals with the character of Henry Dorn, who tries to write a script for a commercial movie after a major failure, the character will have to deal with his demons and his constant indecision in trying to find an approach that is pleasing to his eyes. Based on the tale "The Simplest Thing in the World" by Ayn Rand (available in The Romantic Manifesto)

Cheap Thrills

Recently fired and facing eviction, a new dad has his life turned upside down when he meets a wealthy couple who offer a path to financial security... but at a price.

The Tender Bar

JR is a fatherless boy growing up in the glow of a bar where the bartender, his Uncle Charlie, is the sharpest and most colorful of an assortment of quirky and demonstrative father figures. As the boy’s determined mother struggles to provide her son with opportunities denied to her — and leave the dilapidated home of her outrageous if begrudgingly supportive father — JR begins to gamely, if not always gracefully, pursue his romantic and professional dreams, with one foot persistently placed in Uncle Charlie’s bar.

Mussum, o Filmis

The trajectory of Antônio Carlos Bernardes Gomes, known as Mussum, from Trapalhões. His poor childhood, his military career, his relationship with Mangueira and his success with the group Originais do Samba, as well as behind the scenes as a member of Trapalhões.

The Wrung-Out Man

Deraldo, a popular poet from Northeast Brazil, arrives in the capital of São Paulo, making a living only from his poetry and pamphlets. All is well until he is mistaken for a multinational worker who killed the boss at a party where he received the title of symbolic worker.

They Don't Come in Peace

As two brothers watch a news cast about extra terrestrial beings, the older brother uses the opportunity to make an analogy about their world being invaded by unwelcome visitors.

OG: The Harry Jumonji Story

'OG' is a film about a legendary, Brazilian born, NYC skateboarder, Harry Jumonji. In the course of telling his story, through his triumphs and travails, Jumonji emerges in this portrait as an adolescent innocent, much like skateboarding itself. He is irrepressible, manically energetic and ultimately, pure. He has a transcendent presence, well beyond charm or charisma, of such unalloyed joy that nothing he does is unforgiveable. This is fortunate because, as a drug addict, unsurprisingly, he lies, cheats and steals. Harry is rendered as the poet, the sprite, the artist and the street saint he is.

Isn't She Lovely

Class Project Blind Date

GAP

A resident of a ghetto’s neighborhood of São Paulo amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Gustavo has severe anxiety attacks. When he receives a call from a friend who lives in the same street, he reflects different stories of neighborhood residents in parallel with his family's daily life during social isolation.

A Jornada do Valente

A pictorial portrait of the legendary sambista, Assis Valente. The film traces his biography in a sensorial way, capturing a world divided between joy and despair.

Taciturno

Plot unavailable

The Way He Looks

Leonardo is a blind teenager dealing with an overprotective mother while trying to live a more independent life. To the disappointment of his best friend, Giovana, he plans to go on an exchange program abroad. When Gabriel, a new student in town, arrives at their classroom, new feelings blossom in Leonardo making him question his plans.

Sweet Virginia

A former rodeo star, now a motel manager, meets a young man who is responsible for the violence that suddenly has seized his small town.

The Naked Sun

An Italian businessman travels to Brazil looking for a new job. When things don't go his way, he becomes despondent until he meets a beautiful woman who reveals Rio de Janeiro's most magical, secret locales.

An Entire Future Together

Two men at the bar. They work in banking and have sold preferred securities in an undetermined amount. One of them, the general manager, is being harassed at his home. After several days of harassment, he finally has a revelation.

Deeper

Dealing with anxiety and phobias, Dafni struggles to finish a drawing. As she navigates her relationship with her mother, friends, as well as a dog that she’s been asked to pet sit, her old best friend suddenly reappears after many years and wants to meet up.

Talvez o Vento Saiba seu Nome

Plot unavailable

Letícia

During a work meeting at a hotel, Gustavo, a real player, meets the charming Letícia, who has an intriguing personality. Marked by the encounter, he sees his life change abruptly, making him question his own nature.

Lightrapping

Gustave is a photographer who makes pictures of nude male bodies in public spaces in São Paulo. One night, Pedro goes with him, without yet knowing whether he will be part of the project. This vast city will be witness.

Scarlet Mind

An introverted private investigator is hired to work on an unusual case that involves him with a mysterious woman in a scarlet dress. As the night unfolds, the detective has to decide whether it is love he is seeking or the truth.

Precariado

Plot unavailable

Walzer Allein

Plot unavailable

Kalifornia

A journalist duo go on a tour of serial killer murder sites with two companions, unaware that one of them is a serial killer himself.

Journey to the End of the Night

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.