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


A Certain Captain Rodrigo
1971 · 1h 40m · BR
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.


Ana Terra
1971 · 1h 40m · BR
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.


Netto Perde Sua Alma
2002 · 1h 42m · BR
The story of a man who invented a country.


A Matadeira
1994 · 16m · BR
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.


Hallelujah Gretchen
1976 · 1h 51m · BR
A German family moves to a small town in the interior of the state of Paraná, Brazil, and buys a hotel there, which soon becomes sort of a meeting point for Nazi sympathizers.


Netto e o Domador de Cavalos
2008 · BR
No overview available


The War of Pelados
1970 · 1h 32m · BR
In 1913, in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, the Government gives some lands to a foreign railway company, giving rise to revolt by the former owners of the land. The episode became known as Guerra dos Pelados.


Guerra do Paraguay
2016 · 1h 20m · BR
A soldier coming home after the Paraguay War meets a theater group. A shock between war and art.


Olga
2004 · 2h 21m · BR
Based upon the true story of Olga Benário, the German-born wife of Brazilian communist leader Luís Carlos Prestes. During the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas (1930-1945) she was arrested and sent to Nazi Germany, where she was put to death in a concentration camp. After World War II began, Vargas decided to uphold the Allies.


For All - O Trampolim da Vitória
1998 · 1h 35m · BR
1943, World War II. The northeastern coast of Brazil is an strategic region for the Allies. Giancarlo, an Italian immigrant married to a Brazilian woman, lives nearby the Parnamirin Field, the largest military base built by the USA outside of their territory. In this new base, Brazilian recruits who speak English suddenly find themselves reaching privileged positions.


Caparaó
2007 · 1h 17m · BR
Documentary about the first attempt to fight the military dictatorship since 1964. On the mountains of Caparaó, in august 1966, a group of former officers tried to start a great national reaction against the new regime, in an attempt to replicate a "Sierra Maestra" on Brazilian lands.


Road 47
2014 · 1h 47m · BR
During World War II, looking up the Mountain, in Italy, a Brazilian Expeditionary Force - FEB - mines weeping platoon is hit by a panic-attack that sets them running aimlessly right in the middle of 'no man's land'. Desperate cold and hungry, the ill-prepared soldiers have to choose between facing military court or delve deeper into enemy lines. After a tense discussion, they decide to save their faces with the Brazilian Army by tackling a daring military objective: to disarm the most feared minefield in Italy. On their way there, they end meeting two others deserters; a remorseful Italian soldier trying to join the Partigianos and German officer who is just simply tired of war. with unexpected help of their ex-enemy, the soldiers are set to accomplish a mission that so far had been deemed impossible.


Krung Thep
2026 · 10m
Krung Thep is a dualistic journey between darkness and the dawn of a new day. The short film symbolizes the beginning of the conflicts between Thailand and Cambodia in 2025, a border dispute that displaced thousands of families and resulted in over a hundred deaths.


Time and the Wind
2013 · 2h 7m · BR
Based on Érico Verissimo's literary trilogy, Time and the Wind follows 150 years of the Terra Cambará family and their opponents, the Amaral family. The struggles between the two families begin in the missions and lasts until the end of the 19th century. The film also features the period of formation of the state of Rio Grande do Sul and the dispute of territory between the Portuguese and Spanish crowns.


Os Senhores da Guerra
2016 · 1h 53m · BR
During the Rio Grande do Sul revolution of 1923, two brothers fight on opposite sides.


Brave New Land
2000 · 1h 44m · BR
Diogo is a cartographer and artist who is encharged to set the new frontiers of Portuguese Colonies in South America. When he reaches the center of the continent, finds apparently nothing but wilderness and ‘uncivilized’ natives with strange ways of living. But Captain Pedro, the rude scout who guides him through the jungle, involves Diogo in an involuntary act of violence which will tie him in an unusual way to that far away country. At the same time, the Portuguese colonists are trying to make peace with Guaicuru Indians (one of the few natives with horse-riding abilities). But peace doesn’t ever have a low price.


Alvorada de Glória
1931 · BR
At the Paulistano Club pool, Lygia tells Nilo that she liked the album "Lua Branca," recorded by the young man. He promises to visit her to perform the song in person. The visit marks the beginning of a romance between the two, which later becomes an engagement. However, Nilo is involved in the 1924 uprising in the barracks and, with the outbreak of the revolution, leaves for the front. The city of São Paulo shows the damage caused by the bombings. The rebels, wanting to avoid further sacrifices to the city, after days of fighting and victory, decide to abandon it.


From the River to the Sea - Um Filme Sobre a Guerra em Israel
2024
No overview available


Dirty Hearts
2012 · 1h 30m · BR
In 1945, Japan surrendered to the United States and the Second World War was over. Right? Wrong. For eighty percent of the Japanese community in Brazil, Japan had won the war and defeat was nothing more than American propaganda. The few immigrants that accepted the truth were persecuted. Some were hunted down and assassinated - by their own countrymen - causing the start of a new, private war. Dirty Hearts is a thriller and love story told by the wife of one of the fanatics dedicated to preach Japanese victory. Little by little, she watches her husband, a hard-working immigrant, become an assassin and their love story fade away.


Extremo Ocidente
2022 · 1h 10m · BR
In the underground of a besieged city, a soldier awaits his fate. Meanwhile, in the ruins of the surface, the dangerous Cannibal runs wild.


George Of Cappadocia
2024 · 1h 51m · BR
After winning yet another battle, Jorge is decorated as the new captain of the army, and now finds himself faced with his greatest challenge, whether to be faithful to his faith or succumb to the excesses of Emperor Diocletian.


Cafundó
2005 · 1h 42m · BR
Cafundó is a 35 mm color film which blends fact with fiction in the life of João de Camargo, a former black slave (1858-1942, Sorocaba, Brazil) who, in his old age, works miracles and devotes himself to assisting others in order to attain his freedom. João de Camargo represents the genesis of religious and cultural syncretism in Brazil.


Mosquito
2020 · 2h 2m · BR
Dreaming of great adventures and of standing up for his homeland, a young Portuguese man enlists in the army during World War I and is sent to the front line in Mozambique, Africa. Left behind by his platoon, he sets out on a grueling trek across the mystic Makua native land, walking for over a thousand kilometers, in search of his dream.


Two War Images
2020 · 3m · BR
Two images by unknown authors and unknown times share the war.
O Corneteiro Lopes
O Corneteiro Lopes
2003 · 21m · BR
"O Corneteiro Lopes" is a story of love and courage. The city of Salvador is under siege by Brazilian troops, however, they lose strength in the course of battles. The Portuguese Luiz Lopes, alongside the Brazilian army, contrary to the orders of General Labatut, changes the fortunes of the Battle of Pirajá.


Anahy de las Misiones
1997 · 1h 55m · AR
Told by gauchos from Brazil, Argentina and Uruguai, the legend says that Anahy de las Missiones wandered around the Plata Basin during the time of Cisplatina War (1825-1828), stealing the dead.
Na Terra do Sol
Na Terra do Sol
2005 · 12m
Inspired in "Os Sertões" by Euclides da Cunha, this film tells the saga of the last survivors of the Canudos war.


Sedição de Juazeiro
2012 · BR
No overview available


The Battle of Canudos
1997 · 2h 50m · BR
At the end of the 19th century, a poor family comes to the rural Canudos, a community led by Antônio Conselheiro, seen by many as a holy prophet. Their ways bother the powerful people of the region, and the newly founded Republic sends their army to destroy the settlement, which culminates in one of the bloodiest wars in the history of Brazil.


Batalha dos Guararapes
1978 · 2h 36m · BR
In the early 17th century, the Dutch have occupied Bom Jesus village, the last native stronghold in the Pernambuco captaincy. An adventurer, João Fernandes Vieira, sees himself in the middle of a conflict, torn between joining his friend Mauricio de Nassau alongside the ruling Dutch and siding with his lover Ana Paes in the fight to free his homeland.


O Sobrado
1956 · 1h 50m · BR
Based on Erico Verissimo's masterpiece, O Sobrado follows the Terra-Cambará family during the siege imposed to their house by enemies due to political differences. As the siege goes, the family tensions start to show off.


The Old Soldier's Ballad
2002 · 1h 34m · BR
In November 1999, a film team went from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia to document the 11th National Meeting of the Veterans of World War II. The team returns to Rio de Janeiro and begins a series of interviews with veterans and former fighters, who tell their experiences on the front of Italy, a country devastated by the conflict and in whose territory there were still Nazi-fascist armies. In February 2000, the same team heads to northern Italy to document the cities where Brazilian troops passed, in the regions of Emilia Romana and Tuscany.


Brazil War: The Truth about The Paraguayan War
1987 · 1h 19m · BR
Between 1864 and 1870, South America was the scene of the biggest and bloodiest armed conflict of the century, known as the "Paraguay War," or "Big War," for Paraguayans. Mixing reality and fiction, the documentary discusses this "draft" of World War I, which involved Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, decimating around one million people.


Antes do Fim da Guerra
2026
No overview available


Acme Air
2026 · BR
No overview available


Operation Maduro
2026 · 5m · BR
The American government prepares for a covert operation to kidnap the Venezuelan president. The fate of global trade and potential military consequences rest in the hands of Admiral and secret agent Ralph Mitchels. Follow the story of this stealthy soldier and the worldwide repercussions that unfold throughout the course of the mission.


Carlos - O Filme
2023
No overview available
Maria Quitéria Honra e Glória
Maria Quitéria Honra e Glória
2021 · 13m
While trying to take the enemy's trench, soldier Medeiros remembers his peaceful childhood in the licuri site when everyone knew him by his baptismal name, Maria Quitéria de Jesus.


Guerra do Paraguai
2025 · BR
No overview available


Outlaws from the East
2025 · BR
No overview available
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.
War films range from combat spectacle to anti-war argument, and often try to be both at once. The genre is a reliable index of how a country understands its own history.