Brazil

Analía is a 20-year-old girl from a small town in Argentina who travels to Buenos Aires to deliver some handicrafts for her mother. By chance, an address mix-up leads her to a Muslim neighbourhood where she finds herself taking part in a ritual completely unknown to her. She is given several objects that seem to harbour a mysterious message: these include a tunic, a map and a recipe in Farsi. Enthralled by the new world she has entered, Analía decides to change her identity, and she begins to dress, speak and act like a young Muslim woman.

Analía is a 20-year-old girl from a small town in Argentina who travels to Buenos Aires to deliver some handicrafts for her mother. By chance, an address mix-up leads her to a Muslim neighbourhood where she finds herself taking part in a ritual completely unknown to her. She is given several objects that seem to harbour a mysterious message: these include a tunic, a map and a recipe in Farsi. Enthralled by the new world she has entered, Analía decides to change her identity, and she begins to dress, speak and act like a young Muslim woman.

In this lighthearted and nostalgic tale, Valdemar and Benjamin are the fabulous father/son clown duo of Puro Sangue (Thoroughbred) and Pangaré (Mangy Horse). They make their living travelling the Brazilian countryside with the Circo Esperança (Hope Circus). They have no fixed address. Benjamin begins to grow tired of the road and worries he is no longer funny. With only his birth certificate in hand, he embarks on a journey of self-discovery to claim a life he has for so long only dreamed of knowing.

A family lives off the land, selling fruit to tourists at a humble roadside stall by a motorway that crosses a rural community in the Brazilian Amazon. Unlike his carefree older brother Juliano, Jonathas is an exemplary son, dedicated to his studies and to helping his parents make a living. Lured into a camping trip by his brother and by the sensuality of a Ukrainian girl, his life poignantly changes as he enters the realm of the powerful and deceiving rainforest. A beautifully shot drama of faith and nature, tradition and youth. - Vitor Borba

A family lives off the land, selling fruit to tourists at a humble roadside stall by a motorway that crosses a rural community in the Brazilian Amazon. Unlike his carefree older brother Juliano, Jonathas is an exemplary son, dedicated to his studies and to helping his parents make a living. Lured into a camping trip by his brother and by the sensuality of a Ukrainian girl, his life poignantly changes as he enters the realm of the powerful and deceiving rainforest. A beautifully shot drama of faith and nature, tradition and youth. - Vitor Borba.

Needing a place to stay after a fight with his wife, a man knocks on his father’s door and is coldly welcomed by an old man and his sole companion, a dog named Whale. In the modest house, the son digs up memories of a missing brother, concealed in old Super 8 reels and LPs. Avanti Popolo approaches themes common to many Latin American countries: military dictatorships and the eternal wait for the return of the exiled and disappeared.

Needing a place to stay after a fight with his wife, a man knocks on his father’s door and is coldly welcomed by an old man and his sole companion, a dog named Whale. In the modest house, the son digs up memories of a missing brother, concealed in old Super 8 reels and LPs. Avanti Popolo approaches themes common to many Latin American countries: military dictatorships and the eternal wait for the return of the exiled and disappeared.

José Henrique Fonseca crafts an ambitious and long overdue homage to a central icon in Brazil’s 20th century history. Reminiscent of film noir classics, the biopic tells the glorious and tragic story of the legendary football striker Heleno de Freitas. The sumptuous black and white cinematography reflects the chic life of Rio de Janeiro in the 1940s as it fell under the spell of sports royalty.

In this lighthearted and nostalgic tale, Valdemar and Benjamin are the fabulous father/son clown duo of Puro Sangue (Thoroughbred) and Pangaré (Mangy Horse). They make their living travelling the Brazilian countryside with the Circo esperança (Hope Circus). They have no fixed address. Benjamin begins to grow tired of the road and worries he is no longer funny. With only his birth certificate in hand, he embarks on a journey of self-discovery to claim a life he has for so long only dreamed of knowing.

Heartfelt and generous in spirit. Sergio Barreto, Chicagoano

Breaking all box office records in Brazil, Tropa de elite 2 is the sequel to the highly successful Tropa de elite (2007), though it is by no means necessary to have seen the first film to be gripped by this hard-hitting, realistic portrayal of corruption and violence in Rio de Janeiro. This time round, Padilha tackles the touchy subject of the militias created to protect Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. Constituted mainly of former cops and military men with shady ties to local politicians and judges, these militias tend to escalate the drug-related violence instead of mitigating it.