Luiz Serra

Each citizen of Jotuomba plays an integral role in village life. Madalena is responsible for baking bread; each morning she stacks her rolls as Antonio prepares the coffee. The two share a morning ritual of arguments and insults, followed by an amicable cup of coffee on the bench outside Antonio's shop. At midday the church bells ring, summoning the villagers to mass. In the early evening, they all share a meal together. And so life proceeds in Jotuomba, the days languidly drifting into one another; the only variations seem to be in the weather. But, one day Rita arrives looking for a place to stay.

After her husband loses his job, Helena opens her own grocery store. Soon, increasingly strange events begin to plague her store, making her question her sanity.

An evening in an old time dance hall in Sao Paulo introduces us to local characters who reminisce about the past, wonder about the future, have fun, flirt, fight and, of course, dance. Its earthy humour and eternal themes of ageing, loneliness and desire is an antidote to grumpy old men and women everywhere.

A group of friends in Sao Paulo see each other regularly in different venues of this huge metropolis, and act as their own de-facto family. They are similar in many ways, all upper middle class professionals between 28 and 32 years of age, and very conscious of their psyche and lives. The diversity within the group however, is also remarkable. It's made up about half men and half women. The men are the most diverse, ranging from your average guy looking for love to an Afro-Brazilian womanizing rich playboy, to a conflicted homosexual, heir to a business empire. It is the friendship (Amizade) and bond between these people that the film exposes, and at the same time it explores the different personalities of this apparently homogeneous, but actually psychologically diverse group of Sao Paulo yuppies. They stick together "'til friendship should ever separate them"

Based on a book by Machado de Assis (1839-1908) and adapted to the present time. After the death of the philosopher Quincas Borba, his friend and disciple Rubiao inherits all he possessed: his fortune, his dog, his philosophy and the germ of his madness. Rubiao's passion for Sofia, a friend's wife, places him at the center of a game in which she is the main piece while he is the only one who ignores the rules. The story of a dreamer and delirious man facing a reality to which he is not prepared.

After a heavy rain storm, several vehicles get stuck on a muddy road. Soon hunger and fatigue change people's manners, making them behave in a very noncivilized way.

Antônio Nunes is sentenced to 30 years in jail, after having killed a woman, and becomes known as ripper of women. Infatuated Tânia begins to visit him frequently and hires a lawyer to try to take him out.

10-year-old Pixote endures torture, degradation, and corruption at a local youth detention center where two of its members are murdered by policemen who frame Lilica, a 17-year-old trans hustler. Pixote helps Lilica and three other boys escape and they start to make their living by a life of crime which only escalates to more violence and death.