Best movies like Gaijin: A Brazilian Odyssey

In the '40s, three brothers decide to live a great adventure and enlisting in the Roncador-Xingu Expedition, which has a mission to tame the Central Brazil. The Villas Boas brothers: Orlando, 27, Claudius, 25, and Leonardo, 23, engage in a fantastic and incredible saga. Soon start to lead the expedition that opens new paths 1,500 km, navigates over 1,000 miles of unspoilt rivers, opens 19 airfields for airplanes Army, gives rise to the creation of 43 towns and 14 make contact with wild Indian tribes, unknown, as the Xavante, courageous and feared warriors, no casualties on both sides. This adventure allows the Villas Boas brothers the creation of the Xingu National Park, the first major Amerindian reservation in Brazil, the size of Belgium, transforming them into true contemporary heroes.

In Brazil, Akemi finds out that she's the heiress to the Yakuza empire. Just after that, her destiny enters a spiral of violence and mystery, where a gaijin (foreigner) who's been protecting her all this time, Shirô, may have been actually sent to kill her.

"A Long Journey" tells the story of three siblings who reach adolescence in the late 1960's. The documentary's storyline follows the youngest brother's travels around the world. Worried that he would enter the struggle for freedom against the Brazilian dictatorship, his family sent Heitor to London. There however, he dives head on into the "Swinging London" and, just like the European and American youth of the time period, he experiments with drugs and the mystic allure of India. In the nine years he has traveled around the world, from 1969 to 1978, he has regularly written to his family. The documentary features interviews with Heitor today, his letters and off-screen comments of Heitor's sister, Lúcia Murat, the director of the movie.

After being released from prison, Dr. Nise da Silveira is back at work in a psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro where she refuses to employ the new and violent electroshock in the treatment of schizophrenics. Ridiculed by doctors, she is forced to take on the abandoned Sector for Occupational Therapy, where she would start a revolution through paintings, animals and love.

“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.

The story of João "Jango" Goulart, the Brazilian left-wing president deposed by the military.

Brazil, 18th century. The colony of Portugal endures a decline in gold production. A Portuguese minority rules over a corrupt and autocratic society. Joaquim is an efficient soldier, famous for capturing gold smugglers. While waiting for his promotion to Lieutenant, he leaves for a risky mission in search of new gold mines - the only way to buy the freedom of Blackie, a slave he is in love with. Inspired by the true story of Tiradentes, the first leader of the Brazilian revolutionary movement.

Based upon the life story of Father Antonio Vieira, born in Lisbon in 1608 and deceased in Salvador, Bahia, in 1697. He's considered the first Brazilian writer and one of the most important aesthete of linguistic and of the Portuguese language of all times, a master in the art of metaphor, of verbal relations and analogy. He was persecuted and condemned by the Portuguese Court of Inquisition due to his position against native slavery, against the intolerance to the Jewish people and to the colonial politics of exploration.

An impoverished teen seeking to escape the clutches of a human trafficker must weigh living up to his moral code against his struggle to survive.

Vicky, an out-of-work actress, struggling waitress and lesbian has her whole life thrown into turmoil when her father comes from Germany to visit. The main problem is that Vicky has told him she is a successful actress and happily married. She enlists the help of a gay friend to play her husband. Using a large range of characters—gay, lesbian, straight, transsexuals—the film creates a funny and touching view of family dynamics and sexuality.

Before his compulsory retirement, on his last day of work, Marshall, JFK airport's chief Immigration officer, detains a group of Latin Americans and expose them to a series of humiliating situations. Blinded by prejudice, Marshall ends up by causing the death of a young Brazilian. After a period in prison, Marshall goes to Brazil, deadly ill and in a desperate search in order to purge his guilt. In his quest, he is guided by Bia, a young prostitute.

The real story of Carlos Lamarca, a captain who, during the military dictatorship in Brazil, deserted Brazilian Army and got involved in left-wing guerilla groups, becoming one of their most prominent leaders.

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.

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.

In 1969, the band Sweetwater led by lead vocalist Nansi Nevins opened Woodstock and subsequently got considerable media attention, appearing on a number of TV shows. But just as they appeared to be getting a really break big, they just disappeared. Thirty years later, a cable TV reporter for MIX TV, a musical station, is removed from her show because of being stoned on air. Her station gives her a choice of being dismissed or investigating what happened to Sweetwater. A blending of modern day fiction and past fact is then blended in this biographical story.

The true story of a working class boy who moves to the nation's financial capital at a young age and becomes one the most influential politicians in Brazilian history.

Biographical film of Sister Dulce, who, in life, was called the “Good Angel of Bahia”, also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and canonized by the Catholic Church. Contemplating from the 1940s to the 1980s, the film shows how the Catholic nun faced an incurable respiratory disease, machismo, the indifference of politicians and even the dogmas of the Church to dedicate her life to the care of the miserable, leaving a legacy that continues today.

Giuseppe Garibaldi (Gabriel Braga Nunes), 32 years old, commander of the republican rebels that invade Laguna, Santa Catarina, during the Farrapos War (1835 - 1845), finds his soul mate in Anita (Ana Paula Arósio), 18 years old, wife of local shoemaker. Between passion and battles, they will define the course of their lives and influence the course of the revolution.

The story of Father Antonio Vieira, a 17th-century Portuguese priest who lived in Brazil and worked for better treatment of the Indians and to abolish slavery.

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 agitated and tragic life of poet Castro Alves, and his romance with actress Eugênia Câmara.

Filth & Wisdom is a poignant view of the lives of three not quite ordinary friends settled into meaningless jobs that barely keep them afloat while helping to finance their dreams of bigger and brighter futures. Their unique yet universal stories capture their struggles that are at turns funny and tragic but always brutally honest. Their intertwined lives explore the inevitable: a path paved with filth will often end in wisdom and one paved with wisdom will often end in filth.

Histories of Hunger in Brazil is a documentary that sets a timeline of hunger in the country. From Colonial Brazil, where the seeds of social inequalities were planted, to the recent public policies that culminated with Brazil finally exiting UN official World Map of Hunger, we portray how the confrontation of this evil on the part of the society and of the government took place.

Macabéa has just moved to the big city after her aunt, who raised her, died. She gets a job as a typist and moves into a boarding house with three other women. In her spare time, she listens to a radio station called Time; on Sundays, she likes to ride the metro. Then she meets Olímpico, a northeasterner like herself, who has dreams of becoming a congressman.

A Nigerian musician travels to Brazil to search for his estranged brother, who is living a life very different than the one his family thought.

The story of the famous "Polacas", Jewish women deceived into prostitution in Rio de Janeiro in the early 1900's. Ricardo interviews Mrs. Mira, who struggles to bring back memories from her mother's past as a Polaca.

23-year-old Nikhil comes to Canada from India to find his fortune and is convinced by his uncle to work as a companion and care-giver to Sam, an elderly Jewish man. An unlikely friendship ensues, which gives both men new insight into life.

Gypo is the story of a working class family in Margate, Kent, a town where immigrants have become the focus of most of the public's discontent. The film tells the story of the a couple of weeks in this family's life, beginning when a young Czech girl, Tash, comes to visit. The film is made in the Dogme95 tradition, so no costumes, no lighting, no props or sets, which gives the film a gritty texture appropriate to the story.

The true story of Tancredo Neves, the first civilian president of Brazil after a 20-year military dictatorship, and the infamous hospitalization which led to his death before he ever managed to take office.

Determined to escape their poverty-stricken lives, four talented young women living on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil, form an all-female rap group but find their road to success is riddled with sexism, racism, and violence. One by one, they succumb to their grim realities...until they discover that out of struggle come strength, and out of strength, the courage to continue on.

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.

Documentarians Justine Shapiro and B.Z. Goldberg traveled to Israel to interview Palestinian and Israeli kids ages 11 to 13, assembling their views on living in a society afflicted with violence, separatism and religious and political extremism. This 2002 Oscar nominee for Best Feature Documentary culminates in an astonishing day in which two Israeli children meet Palestinian youngsters at a refugee camp.

The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) is a documentary that was shot over the course of 23 years, Thavi narrates his own story as a child surviving the Vietnam war and loss of his father, and then, as a young man struggling to overcome the hardships of immigrant life, an experience shared with his mother in war.