Marc Beauchamps

In the favelas of Rio de Janeiro of the 1930s, João Francisco dos Santos is several things — son of slaves, ex-convict, thug, homosexual and adopted father for a number of pariahs. João expresses himself on the stage of a cabaret as Madame Satã.

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.

Luiza is an architect who just got out of a ruinous relationship. Gabriel is a biologist and he has finished a long marriage with divorce. When they both meet, chances that they can do well together are not that big. But they will try to, even if their friends Barata (a convict bachelor totally skeptical when it comes to love) and Marta (a mathematic analyst who wishes that human relations were just as exact as numbers are) think otherwise.