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


City of God
2002 · 2h 9m · BR
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.


Elize: Shadows of a Woman
2026 · 1h 33m · BR
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.


The Secret Agent
2025 · 2h 41m · BR
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 · BR
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 · BR
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.


Burning Betrayal
2023 · 1h 39m · BR
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.


A Dog's Will
2000 · 1h 42m · BR
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.


Reaching for the Moon
2013 · 1h 58m · BR
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.


Fugue
2024 · 1h 29m · BE
In the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, Saor, a young androgynous Indian, carries a coffin. He is taking Valentina, his lover, back to her native village to bury her. When Valentina left this village years ago, before becoming a transgender singer in a faraway city, people here knew her as Pol. Valentina's past and death remain an enigma. Yet bit by bit, through his encounters with the people of the village, Saor begins to perceive what connected them to Pol. Sensitive to the world around him, Saor, like a Shaman, enters their memories. Saor starts to understand that, like all homosexuals persecuted by Shining Path terrorists, Pol lived in terror. In the village cemetery, between rage and bitterness, Saor attends the burial of Valentina's body. A ceremony that is both a burial and an exhumation.


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


Trash
2014 · 1h 54m · BR
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.


Madame Durocher
2024 · 1h 59m · BR
The movie follows the life and career of Madame Durocher, first woman to be accepted in the Brazilian Medical Academy.


Blindness
2008 · 2h 1m · BR
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.


The Intruder
1979 · 1h 40m · BR
The parallel lives of two brothers of the "Pampas" of the Brazilian area, which much share everything they have. A woman, "the intruder", will change everything.


State of Fear
2026 · 1h 43m · BR
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.


Love Strange Love
1982 · 2h 3m · BR
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.


Mil Luas
2025 · BR
At 80 years old, Chiara, an immigrant woman, single mother, and independent soul, sees her world collapse with the sale of the restaurant she built while pursuing the dream of a better life for her daughter. Between memories and losses, she rediscovers her strength, her autonomy, and the freedom to start over, proving that it is never too late to choose herself.


Last Sunday
2022 · 17m
The dawn is strange, with a harbinger of change. The next morning, Maria receives a mysterious visitor that leaves José disturbed and will lead her to re-signify her own destiny.


Promiscuity, the Street Kids of Katia
1984 · 1h 30m · BR
A story of a young woman who is cheating her impotent husband with the surrounding teenagers.


The Factory
2011 · 15m · BR
Visiting day. Lindalva prepares food to take it to her son who is in jail. Metruti, Lindalva's son, shaves and wears the best clothes to welcome his mother. Today is a very special day and he really needs to make a phone call. His mother is taking a risk, she's willing to smuggle a cell phone for him into the penitentiary.


Confessions of a Brazilian Call Girl
2011 · 1h 49m · BR
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.


Baby
2025 · 1h 47m · BR
After being released from a juvenile detention center, Wellington finds himself alone and adrift on the streets of São Paulo, without any contact from his parents and lacking the resources to rebuild his life. During a visit to a porn theater, he encounters Ronaldo, a mature man, who teaches him new ways of surviving. Gradually, their relationship turns into a conflicting passion, oscillating between exploitation and protection, jealousy and complicity.


Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
2010 · 1h 55m · BR
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.


Mulher Objeto
1981 · 2h 5m · BR
A story about the fantasies of a married woman who lives in a dream several experiences with partners of both sexes.


Innocence
1983 · 1h 58m · BR
In the 19th century, a country girl is seduced by a young doctor who's staying at her house for a few days, caring for her, and tries to hide the forbidden romance from her father, who disapproves of the relationship.


100 Days
2026 · 1h 56m · BR
100 Days is a feature film about Brazilian explorer Amyr Klink, who crossed the South Atlantic Ocean in 1984. It blends adventure, family drama, and emotional flashbacks from his childhood and teen years.


História Familiar
1988 · 10m · BR
It's Friday night. Pedro and Anastácia are at home, like millions of other couples in São Paulo. Locked away in the living room of their apartment, Pedro and Anastácia's relationship finds an opportunity to reveal its degree of wear and tear. História Familiar portrays the banality of everyday life and contemporary emotional malaise.


Burning Sands
1952 · BR
No overview available


Central Station
1998 · 1h 51m · BR
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.


Gabriela
1983 · 1h 39m · BR
In 1925, Gabriela, a poor, uneducated, yet charming woman becomes cook, mistress, and then wife of Nacib, a bar owner in Ilhéus, a small Brazilian coastal town run by the local colonels.


Podecrer!
2007 · 1h 36m · BR
A group of students in the senior year of high school who have to face to choices of the everyday life. The problems within groups in the school and with having to face the future.


Manas
2025 · 1h 41m · BR
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.


Pedro Mico
1985 · 1h 39m · BR
No overview available


Corisco & Dadá
1996 · 1h 41m · BR
Cruel and brave Brazilian outlaw called Corisco, living in the backcountry in the Northeast, an arid region, rapes 12-year-old Dadá, who becomes his woman, following him and his gang. Although they were supposed to fight against social injustice, they terrorized the small villages along their way.


Mortal Sin
1970 · 1h 10m · BR
The eccentric members of a wealthy Brazilian family each go through personal torment, debauchery and intense guilt. The father has made a fortune in the slaughterhouse business and ignores the feelings of his wife and his workers. When the mother threatens to leave, the father begs for her to stay and continue the hollow charade of their marriage for the sake of social appearances.


California
2015 · 1h 30m · BR
The year is 1984. Estela is going through the turbulent phase of adolescence. Sex, lovers, friendships; everything seems very complicated. Her uncle Carlos is her hero, and visiting him in California is her biggest dream. But everything collapses when he returns thin, weak and ill. Between crises and discoveries, Estela will face a reality that will forever change her way of seeing the world.


Estômago: A Gastronomic Story
2008 · 1h 53m · BR
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.


To the Left of the Father
2001 · 2h 51m · BR
In 1940s São Paulo, Pedro’s tasked to retrieve his estranged brother André. André’s departure stems from a domineering father, an overly affectionate mother, and Pedro’s jealousy over the father’s favoritism. Further complicating matters is André’s unconventional relationship with their sister, Ana.


Mudança
2020 · 1h 28m · BR
No overview available


A Virgem
1973 · 1h 23m · BR
Four couples go to a country seat. One of the girls is still a virgin, and his boyfriend proposes a game which changes the group behavior.
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.