Vivian Golombek

The Surgeon of the Rusty Knife

José Pedro de Freitas, better known as Zé Arigó, was a simple man who lived with his wife Arlete in Congonhas, Minas Gerais. During the 1950s, a time when Spiritism was not as well known and respected in the country, Arigó became a symbol of hope through his surgeries and spiritual cures. Based on a true story, Arigó, with the help of the spirit of Dr. Fritz, performed numerous spiritual surgeries on people from Brazil and the world.

The Surgeon of the Rusty Knife

José Pedro de Freitas, better known as Zé Arigó, was a simple man who lived with his wife Arlete in Congonhas, Minas Gerais. During the 1950s, a time when Spiritism was not as well known and respected in the country, Arigó became a symbol of hope through his surgeries and spiritual cures. Based on a true story, Arigó, with the help of the spirit of Dr. Fritz, performed numerous spiritual surgeries on people from Brazil and the world.

Caleuche: The Call of the Sea

A young woman who suffers a strange disease must travel to a mysterious island in South America, where myths and reality are one and the same.

We're Together

A sensitive drama located in São Paulo, Brazil, about a young doctor who gets involved with two men and a homeless community at the same time.

O Magnata

An upper-middle class punk singer Andre, Magnata spends his time with his low-class friends, singing in clubs and wasting money. When he accepts a challenge to steal a Ferrari, he gets involved in a thriller that can lead him to a tragic consequence.

Money on the Side

Fishy businessman deposits some money in his secretary’s (and lover) account. But a typing mistake sends the money to an honest woman’s account, whose husband had just been fired.

Cafundó

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.

Romeo and Juliet Get Married

The tomboyish, outgoing Julieta is the daughter of a member of the Palmeiras soccer club board. She is constantly frustrated by what she sees as institutional bias against women in soccer. One day while watching her beloved Palmeiras, she is struck by a handsome man, Romeu, that she sees rooting for the Palmeiras' chief rivals, the Corinthians. After meeting the same man again in the middle of eye exam, Julieta and Romeu quickly become a couple. However, in order to avoid incurring the wrath of her parents, Romeu is forced to pretend to be an adoring Palmeiras fan, an increasingly difficult task for the die-hard Corinthiano.

Garotas do ABC

Aurélia is a young black woman who works at a factory and lives in a working-class neighborhood in São Paulo, whose boyfriend Fábio gets involved with a racist neo-nazi group.

The Storytellers

A small poor community called Javé is under threat of being flooded by a new dam that is being built, and the only way to prevent this is to prove the town's historical value. As most of the inhabitants are illiterate, they have no choice but to ask for the help of Antônio Biá, a man who has been ostracized ever since it was discovered that he had sent out letters with lies about their reputations as a way to keep his job in Javé's seldom-used post office. He now has the task of documenting people's memories of how the city was founded, yet each inhabitant has his or her own version of what happened.

Carandiru

When a doctor decides to carry out an AIDS prevention program inside Latin America’s largest prison: the Casa de Detenção de São Paulo - Carandiru, he meets the future victims of one of the darkest days in Brazilian History when the State of São Paulo’s Military Police, with the excuse for law enforcement, shot to death 111 people. Based on real facts and on the book written by Dráuzio Varella.

Posthumous Memories

Free adaptation of Machado de Assis' classic. The narrator is a rich dead man, who tells us about his life and times, making fun of both.

Brainstorm

Neto is a middle class teenager living a normal life. After his father finds a marijuana cigarette on his pocket, he is sent to a mental institution, where he gets to know a completely absurd and inhumane reality in which people are devoured by a corrupt and cruel system.

Two Streams

Young executive woman returns to small town of Dois Córregos and remembers the time, in the late 1960s, when she met her uncle there, a man who was running away from the military dictatorship ruling Brazil at the time.

Friendly Fire

Brazil in the early 70s. Miguel, Eloi, Osvaldo and Paolo take part in armed attacks against the military dictatorship. They pay a heavy price with torture and arrest. Today the four friends still see each other. Only Miguel is politically active. On a photograph from a political meeting in Sao Paolo he recognises the policeman who tortured them 25 years ago and who was responsible for the death of Miguel's girlfriend. The policeman has been officially dead for a few years. On one of their fishing trips together, Miguel tells his friends of his discovery. When they hunt down and confront their nemesis they come into conflict with both themselves and each other.

A Hora Mágica

In the 1950s, while radio is slowly being surpassed by television as the leading broadcast medium, Tito Balcárcel, a voice actor, becomes romantically involved with Lúcia, a fan of his who drags him into a mysterious crime plot.