The 40 most popular brazilian drama movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


Elize: Shadows of a Woman
2026 · 1h 33m
country: Brazil
In this retelling of a real case, a former escort discovers her wealthy husband's infidelity and struggles to cope as betrayal poisons their marriage.


City of God
2002 · 2h 9m
country: Brazil
In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an ambitious drug dealer diving into a dangerous life of crime.


Giselle
1980 · 1h 30m
country: Brazil
Sexy girl seduces all the members of her family. She indirectly causes the failure of his father's marriage, for her stepmother falls in love with her. Then, she has affairs with her father's stepson, and with the farm housekeeper. She and some friends are also raped by some bad guys. But they all celebrate the ruin of traditional family values.


Burning Betrayal
2023 · 1h 39m
country: Brazil
Babi discovers a betrayal by her long-term partner and decides to embark on a new adventure in life. On this journey, she meets judge Marco and they begin to live a story permeated by a lot of sexual tension.


The Secret Agent
2025 · 2h 41m
country: Brazil
Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. Hoping to reunite with his son, he travels to Recife during Carnival but soon realizes that the city is not the safe haven he was expecting.


I'm Still Here
2024 · 2h 18m
country: Brazil
A woman married to a former politician during the 1971 military dictatorship in Brazil is forced to reinvent herself and chart a new course for her family after a violent and arbitrary act.


Elite Squad
2007 · 1h 55m
country: Brazil
In 1997, before the visit of the pope to Rio de Janeiro, Captain Nascimento from BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) is assigned to eliminate the risks of the drug dealers in a dangerous slum nearby where the pope intends to be lodged.


Nando Between Two Worlds - A Sintonia Film
2026 · 1h 49m
country: Brazil
Caught between family life and his obligations to the criminal underworld, Nando faces an impossible choice about where his true loyalties lie.


State of Fear
2026 · 1h 43m
country: Brazil
As São Paulo erupts in an unprecedented wave of violence, a lawyer with underworld ties must strike a deal with the police to rescue her kidnapped niece.


Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
2010 · 1h 55m
country: Brazil
After a bloody invasion of the BOPE in the High-Security Penitentiary Bangu 1 in Rio de Janeiro to control a rebellion of interns, the Lieutenant-Colonel Roberto Nascimento and the second in command Captain André Matias are accused by the Human Right Aids member Diogo Fraga of execution of prisoners. Matias is transferred to the corrupted Military Police and Nascimento is exonerated from the BOPE by the Governor.


Blindness
2008 · 2h 1m
country: Brazil
When a sudden plague of blindness devastates a city, a small group of the afflicted band together to triumphantly overcome the horrific conditions of their imposed quarantine.


Porno!
1981 · 1h 23m
country: Brazil
Three tales of the erotic: Two young ladies experiment with lesbianism, a handsome and wealthy socialite makes a beautiful woman patiently wait to make love to him, and a gorgeous, but controlling and dominating blind woman makes a hunky stud her sexual hostage in her swanky mansion home.


Invisible Life
2019 · 2h 20m
country: Brazil
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1950. In the conservative home of the Gusmão family, Eurídice and Guida are two inseparable sisters who support each other. While Guida can share with her younger sister the details of her romantic adventures, Eurídice finds in her older sister the encouragement she needs to pursue her dream of becoming a professional pianist.


Trash
2014 · 1h 54m
country: Brazil
Set in Brazil, three kids who make a discovery in a garbage dump soon find themselves running from the cops and trying to right a terrible wrong.


Love Strange Love
1982 · 2h 3m
country: Brazil
A man remembers forty-eight crucial hours in his life when, as a child, he visited his mother, the favorite woman of an important politician, in a bordello owned by him, right before some important political changes in 1937 Brazil. In those hours, he discovers his own sexuality.


A Dog's Will
2000 · 1h 44m
country: Brazil
The lively João Grilo and the sly Chicó are poor guys living in the hinterland who cheat a bunch of people in a small town in Northeastern Brazil. When they die, they have to be judged by Christ, the Devil and the Virgin Mary before they are admitted to paradise.


The Son of a Thousand Men
2025 · 2h 6m
country: Brazil
In a small village, a lonely fisherman yearning for a son is drawn to an ethereal light that links him to others and their long-buried secrets.


Political Animal
2017 · 1h 15m
country: Brazil
She has everything her heart desires. She's popular, loves shopping, comes from a loving family. She plays volleyball and afterwards has a smoke with girlfriends. Sports club, barbecue, hairdresser: her life is perfect. There’s only one thing that makes her stand out: she is a cow.


Yanuni
2026 · 1h 52m
country: United States
Indigenous chief Juma Xipaia fights to protect tribal lands despite assassination attempts. Her struggle intensifies after learning she's pregnant, while her husband, Special Forces ranger Hugo Loss, stands by her side.


The Blue Trail
2025 · 1h 26m
country: Brazil
To maximize economic productivity, the Brazilian government orders elderly people to move to remote housing colonies. A 77-year-old woman refuses and embarks on a journey through the Amazon that will change her destiny forever.


How She Looks
2018 · 25m
country: Brazil
The film follows a few days in the life of a young actress who has lost her sight, but who tries to be independent, also addressing the tension and trust between the protagonist and a student hired to help her.


Central Station
1998 · 1h 51m
country: Brazil
An emotional journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.


Macabre
2019 · 1h 45m
country: Brazil
In the 1990s, two brothers were accused of murdering eight women, one man and one child in the Serra dos Órgãos region. In the eyes of the suspects, Sergeant Téo realizes that the trial of the press, police and local society is fundamentally racist, and begins to have doubts about the conviction of one of them. Based on a true story, the film is a work of fiction about the famous case of the "Necrophil Brothers."


Caramelo
2025 · 1h 40m
country: Brazil
After a life-changing diagnosis, a promising chef finds hope and humor with the help of a fur-midable dog friend.


The Way He Looks
2014 · 1h 36m
country: Brazil
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.


New Dubai
2014 · 50m
country: Brazil
In a middle-class neighbourhood in a city in the countryside of Brazil, the real estate speculation is a menace to the affective memory of a group of friends. Their answer to this imminent transformation is to fuck in the construction sites. And what about love? Is love just a construction?


The Traitor
2019 · 2h 31m
country: Brazil
Palermo, Sicily, 1980. Mafia member Tommaso Buscetta decides to move to Brazil with his family fleeing the constant war between the different clans of the criminal organization. But when, after living several misfortunes, he is forced to return to Italy, he makes a bold decision that will change his life and the destiny of Cosa Nostra forever.


Possible Loves
2001 · 1h 38m
country: Brazil
Fifteen year ago, Carlos went to the cinema to meet Júlia, his university colleague with whom he was in love. She never showed up. Carlos was left waiting in the lobby alone. While he waits, something happens which will change his life. A scene, an encounter, an unfinished sentence... Something insignificant, but which will determine the character's life. Fifteen years later, we follow three completely different versions of Carlos's life. In one, he is a man divided between the stability of a secure life in a lukewarm marriage, and the growing desire to live a great love affair. In the second, he is homosexual and places passion above all else. In the third possible life, Carlos is a man who hasn't yet discovered love, and lives through successive disastrous relationships in search of the perfect woman. One of them is his real life. Another is not his life. And a third is the life he'd like to lead. Which is his true life ?


Kiss of the Spider Woman
1985 · 2h
country: Brazil
The story of two radically different men thrown together in a Latin American prison cell. One is Valentin, a journalist being tortured for his political beliefs. The other is Molina, a gay window-dresser who fills their lonely nights by spinning romantic fantasies drawn from memories of old movies.


The Clown's Daughter
2024 · 1h 44m
country: Brazil
Joana, a 14-year-old teenage girl, shows up to spend a week with her father, Renato, a comedian who performs his shows in steak houses, bars and nightclubs in Fortaleza dressed as Silvanelly. Despite barely knowing each other, having had little contact so far, and leading very different lifestyles, father and daughter need to live together during this period of time. Together they will meet the young actor Marlon, live new experiences and try new feelings. This week together will profoundly transform their lives.


Trace
2021 · 7m
country: Brazil
A photographer looks at pictures of the last day of a boy's life.
Periscópio
Periscópio
2015 · 1h 25m
country: Brazil
Élvio and Eric live alone in a small apartment without talking to anyone else. The relationship between the two deteriorates until one day, mysteriously, a periscope appears in the room.


Overhaul
2023 · 1h 40m
country: Brazil
When truck racer Roger loses everything, he receives a tempting but dangerous offer: to work as the getaway driver for a gang of thieves.
Se Não...
Se Não...
2015
country: Brazil
No overview available


Cute but Ordinary
1981 · 1h 45m
country: Brazil
The youngest daughter of a rich man has been raped by five black men in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, and her father arranges her marriage to one of his employees in order to save the family’s honor.


Manas
2025 · 1h 41m
country: Brazil
Thirteen-year-old Marcielle lives on Marajó Island in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. To break a terrible cycle that imprisons the women around her in an isolated region, she must do the impossible to liberate herself and her younger sister from a dark abyss of silence held by her own family.


The Second Mother
2015 · 1h 52m
country: Brazil
After leaving her daughter Jessica in a small town in Pernambuco to be raised by relatives, Val spends the next 13 years working as a nanny to Fabinho in São Paulo. She has financial stability but has to live with the guilt of having not raised Jessica herself. As Fabinho’s university entrance exams approach, Jessica reappears in her life and seems to want to give her mother a second chance. However, Jessica has not been raised to be a servant and her very existence will turn Val’s routine on its head. With precision and humour, the subtle and powerful forces that keep rigid class structures in place and how the youth may just be the ones to shake it all up.


Freedom Station
2013 · 1h 28m
country: Brazil
Mario Kubo is a quiet man. For many, he seems lost. Disconnected from the world around him, he is not doing well. On the days where we follow his life, he seems to undergo a fundamental transformation. Mario receives a letter from Japan with undecipherable content, since he doesn’t speak Japanese. Alone, he begins a journey after something that he is not quite sure what it is.


Mãe
2019 · 1h 22m
country: Brazil
Madalena is Sônia's mother, who is Julia's mother, who is Camila's mother. A family of women so different, yet trapped by events and tragedies so interconnected. Closely related, distant due to fatality. A story where reality invades fiction.


Reaching for the Moon
2013 · 1h 58m
country: Brazil
In 1951, New York poet Elizabeth Bishop travels to Rio de Janeiro to visit Mary, a college friend. The shy Elizabeth is overwhelmed by Brazilian sensuality. She is the antithesis to Mary’s dashing partner, architect Lota de Macedo Soares. Mary is jealous, but unconventional Lota is determined to have both women at all costs. This eternal triangle plays out against the backdrop of the military coup of 1964. Bishop’s moving poems are at the core of a film which lushly illustrates a crucial phase in the life of this influential Pulitzer prize-winning poet.
Brazilian cinema's Cinema Novo movement of the 1960s tied filmmaking directly to social critique, a thread that runs through to the urban dramas that broke internationally in the 2000s.
Drama is cinema's widest category and its default setting — character, conflict, and consequence without genre machinery. It's where most awards conversation lives, and where directors go when the story is the effect.