Our top Brazilian films

From the squalid City Of God ghettos, to violence in the heart of Sao Paulo and the colourful, carnivalesque atmosphere in the desolate hinterlands,

City of God (2002)
Director: Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund
Perhaps the best film to have ever emerged from South America. City of God takes us into the squalid Brazilian ghetto and sets off an explosion in the face of the audience with its portayal of youthful anarchy.

The Zeitgeist shows the cauldron of underprivileged and impoverished children in a Brazilian ghetto and follows their lives over the next 20 years as they fall into a life of crime as cut-throat killers and drug lords, all trying to survive at the expense of wiping out their rivals and foes.

Pixote (1981)
Director: Hector Babenco
Again juvenile poverty is prominent in this film. Pixote (Portuguese slang for 'Peewee') follows a chubby-cheeked 10-yar-old played by a real-life slum kid.

Pixote is taken to an overcrowded 'reform school' in the heart of Sao Paulo which is a cross between prison and army barracks and has to learn to deal with the harsh realities of violence and threats from fellow inmates and warders supposedly protecting them.

He falls into crime gangs upon release but his dreams of big money and a good life are dashed as they play at crime in a violent kill-or-be-killed world.

Bye Bye Brazil (1979)
Director: Carlos Diegues
Colourful, carnivalesque art-house hit follows a tawdry troupe of circus performers as they tour Brazil's desolate hinterlands. The eccentric cast of characters includes flamboyant Lord Gypsy, a magician and clairvoyant; his lover Salomé, an exotic dancer; and a deaf-mute strongman called Swallow.

Bye Bye Brazil presents a mural of Brazil that is as varied as the country itself.

Orfeu (1999)
Director: Carlos Diegues'
Orfeu brings the Orpheus myth into the modern world of laptops and hip-hop, cell phones and street crime. Orfeu is Rio de Janeiro's samba king and a kind of god to his neighbours in the labyrinth of slums on Carioca Hill, is humbled by his love for Euridice, a sweet and stunningly beautiful girl from the provinces.

Shot on location at Rio's fiery Carnival celebrations it is a dazzling mix of musical extravaganza, romantic tragedy, and gangland crime drama drops the myth into the poverty and violence of slum life.

Bossa Nova (2000)
Director: Bruno Baretto
Many movies have tried to weave a web of coincidences and quirky characters into a satisfying tale of love, but few of them succeed. Bossa Nova, directed with a deft touch and acted with simplicity and genuine charm, pulls it off.

An American teaching English in Rio de Janeiro; her husband died years before and she has given up on love. A male Lawyer Pedro is in the middle of a sticky divorce and wants his wife back, but when he sees Mary Ann in the hallway outside her language school, he is instantly smitten and starts taking her class.