Ruy Polanah
Birth : , Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Death : 2008-09-03
The Soothsayer
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.
Farmacêutico
The old servant and chronicler Dom Sabas tells how his desolate South American town is the scene of a ruthless power struggle. The landowning Assis family, reduced to a widow and son, tries to hold out against the young, despotic mayor. No less effective then actions are anonymous rumors and accusations, which often stir the inhabitants' moves.
Vô Tigé
The young warrior indian Tainá must now battle against biopirates, and is joined by a new boy from the big city and an indian little girl who wants to follow her steps as a protector of the jungle.
Tigé
A brave and bold indigenous girl, protector of her jungle and its wild life and guided by her shaman grandfather, pairs with a boy from the big city, against animal traffickers in the Amazon forest.
Velho da Jumelice
Orfeu is a popular composer from a samba school. He lives in the favela and falls madly in love when he meets Euridice, a newcomer to the neighborhood. But the local drug boss Lucinho stands between them and will drastically change both their lives.
Pajé
Following the clues of a map, a boy and some adventurers go into the forest in search of treasure from the pioneers, and end up going back two centuries in time, in search of the legendary Minas dos Martírios.
Giorginha's father
Matteo is a Roman barber whose business is full of debts. He decides to escape from this depressing reality by accepting his sister Angelina's invitation to Brazil.
Kori
Martin and Hazel Quarrier are small-town fundamentalist missionaries sent to the jungles of South America to convert the Indians. Their remote mission was previously run by the Catholics, before the natives murdered them all. They are sent by the pompous Leslie Huben, who runs the missionary effort in the area but who seems more concerned about competing with his Catholic 'rivals' than in the Indians themselves. Hazel is terrified of the Indians while Martin is fascinated. Soon American pilot Lewis Moon joins the Indian tribe but is attracted by Leslie's young wife, Andy. Can the interaction of these characters and cultures, and the advancing bulldozers of civilization, avoid disaster?
Marcos
When Cunda, a man living deep in the Brazilian rainforest, is bitten by a snake, he has a hallucination of four chimpanzees. Once he recovers, he is shocked to find the four chimpanzees waiting for him at home, and, believing them to be special, decides to take them to the city in order to sell them.
Manoel Tropeiro
This epic Brazilian film was based on the equally epic novel by Antonio Callado. Set between 1954 and 1964, the film's focus is the saga of Jesuit priest Nando. Fed up with civilization, he ventures deep into Amazon country to live with and work among the Xingu Indians.
Padrinho
After witnessing the assassination of her parents, Luzia is raised by a cowboy and starts behaving like the men of Brazilian "Sertão". As a grown-up, she sets out to find her parent's murderer, but ends up discovering love.
Índio
After arguing with his ex-girlfriend, truck driver Jorge hits the road again, while remembering the past and questioning his friendship with his manipulative boss.
Severino
The Amazonian jungle, Brazil, 1987. Ruthless landowners are evicting peasants from their land. The peasants look to the priest for help, and are contemplating taking up arms. A stranger arrives who provides an answer to their plight.
Zé Amaro
According to an Amazonian legend, every month, during the full moon, a Brazilian fishing village receives a mysterious guest: the Boto, who transforms into a human to seduce and be loved by women and hated by men. One of her conquests is the daughter of a fisherman, who has a son with the Boto. He constantly reappears to seduce her, and even when she marries, he continues to look for her. This provokes the ire of the husband, who wants to kill him anyway.
Mr. Kapa and his assistant meet Iara, a mythical being, in a river with purple waters. Geléia, the assistant, fills a bottle with this magic water and makes three puppets turn alive.
In Rio de Janeiro's bohemian district called Lapa, during the '40s, a stylish and popular scoundrel exploits a cabaret singer, and earns his living by means of petty swindles. But then he meets Ludmila, the cabaret owner's daughter, who wants to get rich smuggling goods in times of war.
Wanadi
For ten years, engineer Bill Markham has searched tirelessly for his son Tommy who disappeared from the edge of the Brazilian rainforest. Miraculously, he finds the boy living among the reclusive Amazon tribe who adopted him. And that's when Bill's adventure truly begins. For his son is now a grown tribesman who moves skillfully through this beautiful-but-dangerous terrain, fearful only of those who would exploit it. And as Bill attempts to "rescue" him from the savagery of the untamed jungle, Tommy challenges Bill's idea of true civilization and his notions about who needs rescuing.
Inspetor
The film shows the drama of the young and fragile Lalinha. After being abandoned by her husband, who ran away with another, the girl seeks comfort on the farm where the two in-laws live and the widowed father-in-law. There, the girl discovers a new world.
Navarro
Quilombo dos Palmares was a real-life democratic society, created in Brazil in the 17th century. This incredibly elaborate (and surprisingly little-known) film traces the origins of Quilombo, which began as a community of freed slaves. The colony becomes a safe harbor for other outcasts of the world, including Indians and Jews. Ganga Zumba (Toni Tornado) becomes president of Quilombo, the first freely elected leader in the Western Hemisphere. Naturally, the ruling Portuguese want to subjugate Zumba and his followers, but the Quilombians are ready for their would-be oppressors. The end of this Brave New World is not pleasant, but the followers of Zumba and his ideals take to the hills, where they honor his memory to this day. Writer/director Carlos Diegues takes every available opportunity to compare the rise and fall of Quilombo with the state of affairs in modern-day Brazil.
Poor people who live in the slums in Rio de Janeiro decide to occupy an empty apartment building in the rich part of the city. Meanwhile, a rich girl falls in love with a poor composer. Based on the musical play "Pobre Menina Rica", by Vinícius de Moraes and Carlos Lyra.
Donato
A group of eccentric people gather at a popular bar in Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro. Among its costumers, we find Ana, an actress, and her husband Zeca, a writer in crisis about his work.
A military man picks up a Native Brazilian woman and heads to a gold panning site where he has undisclosed business to attend to.
Rubber Baron
Fitzcarraldo is a dreamer who plans to build an opera house in Iquitos, in the Peruvian Amazon, so, in order to finance his project, he embarks on an epic adventure to collect rubber, a very profitable product, in a remote and unexplored region of the rainforest.
A three-episode anthology film based on short stories by Brazilian writer Graciliano Ramos.
A Deusa Negra is a love story that spans two centuries. In 18th century Yorubaland, Prince Oluyole is taken prisoner in the course of internecine warfare fanned by overseas slave traders. He is sold into slavery in Brazil. In present day Nigeria, at his father's deathbed, the young Babatunde promises to go to Brazil and search for traces of their once-enslaved ancestors. Beginning with a Candomblé ritual, his journey takes him ever deeper into this culture and, in a dream-like sequence, affords him a deeper understanding of his ancestors' suffering and powers of resistance. Balogun effortlessly links present with past, real with magical worlds and discourse with trance. The hypnotic atmosphere is also heightened by the music of the Nigerian drummer Remi Kabaka, which plays with repetitive patterns and distortions.
This adaptation of a classic Brazilian novel focuses on the relations of charismatic characters within a tenement.
Galvão
A true friendship develops between Jojô, a prostitute Rosa, and the young Eduardo, who survive on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Everything goes well until ambition takes over the trio, causing friends to aim for bigger goals, planning a big assault that could cost them their lives.
Young robber, son of a prostitute who had killed herself, gets involved with two police informers, who force him to share the loot he gets.
Índio Diogo
Life and death of the jesuit who fought for the peaceful relationship between colonists and the indigenous peoples of Brazil.
Tomás Aquino Gonzaga
After assaulting a Hollywood film crew, a group of residents of a community in Rio de Janeiro decided to produce a film that would express the reality of Brazil - with the theme of Inconfidência Mineira.
Réjane
A wealthy French promoter based in Rio tries to seduce Alexandra, a young woman of high society, but trapped in her strict education.
"Seven women on motorcycles, through Via Dutra, go to the Baixada Fluminense, a microcosm of Brazil. Diving into the memory and questioning the behavior imposed on women, they seek to rescue the strength of the feminine. The new woman, born in the Brazilian land, incorporates the Amazons and Santa Guerreira. At his side, the new man, more loose and creative. Closing the cycle, the initial road is resumed. " (HBH / QC)
Mongolô
Unable to endure the idea that he would go without punishment, a criminal's victim chases him the length and breadth of Brazil for a showdown.
Joana is a sophisticated, beautiful woman, so she has a choice of lovers, and destinies. She will let down Pierre, the French consul at São Paulo, and with him the frivolity of tea-parties and comfort. Her wild inner-soul will develop into the wild forest surroundings of a landlord's farmhouse. To the extent she will defend her land like a 19th century owner - of lands and men alike.
Producer
The story of Paulo Honório, a poor ploughman who becomes a rich farmer. Obsessed by his desire to get even richer, he doesn't pay much attention to his wife, Madalena, a teacher who reacts against his tyrannical ways.
Production Manager
In the 1930s, in the South of State of Bahia, Brazil, an adventurer with no name or history, who has already been shot seven times, gets involved in the battle for land and cacao plantations. His plan is to take the place of "Colonel" Santana, taking his wife and money. He starts a bloody conflict, in which many simple people and landowners die.
Urbano
In the 1930s, in the South of State of Bahia, Brazil, an adventurer with no name or history, who has already been shot seven times, gets involved in the battle for land and cacao plantations. His plan is to take the place of "Colonel" Santana, taking his wife and money. He starts a bloody conflict, in which many simple people and landowners die.
Virgilio
Assistant Director
A group of armed soldiers is sent to the Northeast of Brazil in an attempt to stop a famine-struck population from invading and stealing a food deposit in the dry backlands. While the alienation and insanity of people driven to hallucination by their latent hunger is conducted by the predictions of a religious figure, a truck driver observes the situation and remains torn between his friendship with the soldiers and his revolt against the lack of government action in fighting the misery that lingers over the region.
Bar owner
A group of armed soldiers is sent to the Northeast of Brazil in an attempt to stop a famine-struck population from invading and stealing a food deposit in the dry backlands. While the alienation and insanity of people driven to hallucination by their latent hunger is conducted by the predictions of a religious figure, a truck driver observes the situation and remains torn between his friendship with the soldiers and his revolt against the lack of government action in fighting the misery that lingers over the region.
Production Manager
A group of armed soldiers is sent to the Northeast of Brazil in an attempt to stop a famine-struck population from invading and stealing a food deposit in the dry backlands. While the alienation and insanity of people driven to hallucination by their latent hunger is conducted by the predictions of a religious figure, a truck driver observes the situation and remains torn between his friendship with the soldiers and his revolt against the lack of government action in fighting the misery that lingers over the region.
The life of a runaway slave who founded the Quilombo dos Palmares, an outlaw community of Brazilian slaves.
In a company trading maté, workers are treated as slaves. Some of them try to escape, but those who are caught suffer severe punishments.