Brazilian History Movies

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.

The movie follows the life and career of Madame Durocher, first woman to be accepted in the Brazilian Medical Academy.

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.

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.

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A Lebanese photographer living in Brazil in the '30s manages to film the band of Lampião, a legendary Brazilian bandit.

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Reconstruction of the historical episode of the Inconfidência Mineira (Minas Conspiracy).

Through abrupt soundtrack shifts, this short film jumps between historical political imagery to explore the cinematic language of propaganda, unpacking complex concepts through sensory explosions — from the Brazilian military dictatorship to the Chinese revolution.

A large protest march of escaped slaves is an episode in the history of Chico Bondade and Boaventura, who had already become legendary for their difficult and daring missions.

A knight, half soldier, half gaudério, dolphinfish hair in the sun, guitar on his back, enters the sleepy town of Santa Fe. Nobody could imagine that this man was also getting into their lives. Singing and drinking was winning the hearts of women and admiration of men. A storyteller of adventures, wars or lies? Based on the book by Erico Verissimo.

Rio Grande do Sul, 18th century. In between the arduous work on the land aiming for the prosperity of her family's farm and the constant attacks from bandits that the militias can't control, a young lady matures amidst the struggles of life. However, after saving the life of a semi-Indian, the wind brings in love, as well as tragic events to her and her family.

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Mexico City, November 1901. The police raid a private home where a secret party is being held. Among those attending is the son-in-law of President Porfirio Díaz.

The story of Orisbela, a young and religious woman who comes from Portugal to Brazil to marry Francisco de Albuquerque, a rude sugar-cane plantation owner, in 1570.

The life of Fernão Dias, a 17th century Brazilian frontiersman known as "the Emerald Hunter".

Afro-Brazilian poet and politician, the legendary Carlos Marighella. Driven to fight against the erosion of civil and human rights following the CIA-backed military coup of 1964 and the brutal, racist right-wing dictatorship that followed, the revolutionary leaves behind his wife and son to take up arms, becoming a notorious enemy to the power structure.

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Paulinho Gogó narrates his stories on a park bench for different listeners, while waiting for the arrival of his beloved Nega Juju.

The story of Allan Kardec, from his days as an educator to his contribution to the spiritist codification.

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After her parents were killed by a troupe of soldiers in search of Lampião, an outlaw living in Northeastern Brazil, Maria marries Filipe, a horse whisperer. But his nephew Coriolano soon develops an attraction for Maria, while a jealous Filipe decides to break his marriage and sends Maria away.

Francisco Brennand is an eighty-five year odl, painter, sculptor and ceramist from Brazil. He lives and works isolated in an open-air museum set in an old ceramic roofing tile factory that belonged to his father. Based on his diaries, written over the past 60 years, the film narrates the artist's journey from the moment he moved into the factory until today.

The extraordinary story of Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas, who served as Brazilian Ambassador to Paris during WWII. A largely unsung hero, he defied his own government’s orders by granting hundreds of unauthorised visas to Jews and others facing imminent capture and death.

The story of a man who invented a country.

The film depicts part of Priest Donizetti Tavares de Lima's trajectory in a little town in the State of São Paulo called Tambaú, where he performed a series of miracles.

When bandits take the town of Sertânia, Antão gets shot, arrested, and left to die. Bleeding out, Antão's delirious mind begins to recall the events that led up to the incident through a sequence of increasingly unreliable fever dreams.

Canudos was a small village in northeastern Brazil, founded by the messianic leader Antônio Conselheiro and massacred by a powerful army until the death of the last of its 30,000 inhabitants, on October 5, 1897. The film tells the story of the Canudos massacre from an English cannon, nicknamed by the backlands people "A Matadeira", which was transported by twenty teams of oxen through the backlands to fire a single shot.

In 1873 in Rio Grande do Sul, a group of peasants come together to form a community of brothers, arousing the enmity of the rest of the population. They are immigrants from the German region and develop a communitary social model, having the Bible as a code of morals, faith and conduct. The group's economic independence ends up irritating the locals to the point of provoking successive aggressions that culminate in a bloody massacre.

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“Rio 2096 – A Story of Love and Fury” is an animated film that portrays the love between an immortal hero and Janaína, the woman he has been in love with for 600 years. As a backdrop to the romance, the feature highlights four phases of Brazilian history: colonization, slavery, the Military Regime and the future, in 2096, when there will be a war for water.

Paulo Coelho is the world’s most translated living author, his books having sold over 165 million copies. But he was not always the inspirational global phenomenon he is today. Like the heroes in his spiritual classics THE ALCHEMIST and THE PILGRIMAGE, he long-searched for his calling, flirting with death, escaping madness, falling in love, and making rock ’n’ roll history in Brazil, all-the-while striving for success as a writer. A wild ride through a lifetime of stranger-than-fiction adventures, PAULO COELHO’S BEST STORY is a profoundly moving film that goes straight to the heart of the most beloved literary guru of our time, revealing the most incredible wonder of all: the man behind the masterpieces.

Authorized biopic of Brazilian evangelical bishop Edir Macedo, founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and owner of Record TV network. Based on a book trilogy of the same name, the movie tells the story of the self-made man who faced several moments of turbulence while pursuing his conviction.

Based on the biography of Luiz Gama, one of the most important characters in Brazilian history, a black man who used the laws and courts to free more than 500 slaves. Born of a free womb, Gama was sold into slavery at the age of 10 to pay off his father's gambling debts. Even as a slave, he became literate, studied and earned his own freedom, becoming one of the most respected lawyers of his time. An abolitionist and republican who inspired an entire country.

The true story of Assis Chateaubriand, the first magnate of communications in Brazil. Due to his influence during the late 1930s up to the early 1960s, he has come to be called 'the Brazilian Citizen Kane'.

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From a repressive childhood to artistic revolution, Ney Matogrosso transforms Brazil's stages — and himself — through music, creativity and inner fire.

The story of Francisco, a very simple and poor man whose dream was to see his children become country music stars, and who made all the efforts to make it happen.

On the eve of his return to Europe after an extended involuntary stay in 16th-century Brazil, the German sailor Hans Staden is captured by a hostile cannibal Indian tribe. In order to survive he tries to convince the Indians that he is not Portuguese (their enemies) but a friend of the French (their allies), and that his God would be very angry if they were to eat him.