Best movies like Short Journeys into the Night

Many exotic characters meet in São Paulo night, looking for love and adventure: Malu, a model; Mauro, the drag queen; Teddy, the hustler; Guto, the gay reporter; and Marta, an actress.

Story of a modest but talented soccer player for an obscure club in a small Brazilian town who comes to São Paulo and reaches stardom.

Bring on the Night is a 1985 documentary film, that focuses on the jazz-inspired project and band led by the British musician Sting during the early stages of his solo career. Some of the songs, whose recording sessions are featured in the film, appeared on his debut solo album The Dream of the Blue Turtles. Each musician in the band through the course of the film is interviewed.

After his mother's sudden death, Socrates, a 15-year-old living on the margins of São Paulo's coast, must survive on his own while coming to terms with his grief.

Afonso is a university professor and a single father to his son Benedict. One day, they decide to take a trip together, but face problems when their car breaks down. They are helped by four very beautiful telemarketing operators who take them back to São Paulo.

Sergio and his father, Simão, haven’t seen each other for over 20 years. On the eve of the 2014 World Cup, Sergio returns to his hometown, São Paulo, hoping to watch the games with Simão, as they used to when he was a kid. It seems to be a perfect plan for a father-son reunion: a whole month together, their schedule based on the World Cup calendar. But as the days go by, their relationship starts to wander into unknown territory and their pact to watch the entire tournament together turns into a dangerous ritual…

Former athlete enters an old cinema in São Paulo's decadent city centre and meets an intriguing and mysterious woman, very much like the leading lady on the film. He gets involved with her and her problems and in no time is being accused of a crime.

The film tells the story of an intuitive, adventurous man who loved his country and being Brazilian. This man fought to be loyal to himself. His music is a transparent portrait of his genius, intuition, freedom, adventure and passion for Brazil.

In Brazil, in 1978, under the dictatorship, the country lives the euphoria of disco fever and the fantasy life of Dancin' Days, a prime time soap. After a fatal incident, Amanda, a high-class prostitute addicted to TV, and her maid Dora, are forced to flee São Paulo to Rio. While Amanda dreams of visiting the Dancin' Days disco, Dora prepares to confront her secret past. Their destinies will eventually intersect with those of João Paulo, a diplomat who feels like a foreigner in his own country, the revolutionary Vicente and his brother Pedro, and the teenager Caio, raised by his grandparents and relying on the support of his friend Mônica as he struggles to be accepted as a gay man. Both youngsters are crazy about disco fever and fascinated by the soap Dancin' Days.

During four years a film crew followed the classified investigations and actions of the São Paulo Anti-Kidnapp Police Force. During this time 386 people were kidnapped in the state of São Paulo and over 1.500 in Brazil.

In the periphery of São Paulo, the pregnant single mother Cleuza works as maid in the apartment of a middle-class family. Each of her sons has a different unknown father: the oldest, Dênis, has a baby son that lives with his mother and he works as motorcycle courier.

An apparently simple adultery case turns into an intricate and suspense-filled plot composed of numerous twists and turns, with a surprising ending. Dr. Rafidjian, a renowned physician, seeks out Dora Lobo's detective agency, wishing to locate call girl Ana Cíntia Lopes. The case soon finds its way into the hands of Remo Bellini and his new assistant Beatriz; but the client's brutal murder changes the course of the investigation, leading the two detectives into high-risk situations. Trying to solve the crime, they canvas the nightlife of São Paulo's underworld, where they meet Fátima, a mysterious prostitute who becomes involved with Bellini. Based on the book of the same title by the writer and musician Tony Bellotto, who is also the film's co-producer and co-composer of the soundtrack, along with Charles Gavin, fellow member of the rock band Titãs, and Andreas Kiesser, of Sepultura.

Writer Sílvio Proença needs to travel to São Paulo in order to promote his new book. At the airport, he meets a group of old mates. With the boarding canceled due to a strong storm, the group goes to the apartment of Marialva, daughter of one of Proença's friends. Seduced by Marialva's music and charms, Proença spends the night there, where he wakes up the next day, completely naked. Still groggy from his hangover, he goes to pick up the bread left outside the apartment; that's when the wind closes the door and leaves him naked outside.

Based on the classic Brazilian television series that conquered audiences during Sunday night prime time on TV Globo, with improv that happens like in scenes of a play. The feature film’s structure maintains the members of a middle-class family from São Paulo, their maid, and the building’s doorman. It’s the return of iconic characters like Caco Antibes, Magda and Ribamar, and also new characters.

Durval and his mother Carmita live at the back of "Durval Discos", a record store they own in São Paulo, specializing in vinyl records. They lead a boring and unattractive life, until the day Durval hires a maid, Celia, to help his mother with the housekeeping. However, on her second day, Celia goes away leaving a 5-year-old child behind, Kiki, and a note promising to be back in a couple of days. Durval and Celia are charmed by the child at first, but soon they see some sad news about Celia and Kiki on TV that will change the whole situation.

In the city of São Paulo, the routine of gravedigger apprentice Deodato changes when a new working girl arrives at the cemetery. Together, they must re-register the abandoned tombs, but strange events make the apprentice wonder about the consequences of messing with the dead.

A thriller set in São Paulo Brazil, about a private security agent who starts to dream of his teeth falling. Somehow those dreams might be related to a string of mysterious deaths around him. Tormented by his dreams he sets on a journey to investigate, his life, his memory and his subconscious.

In 1932, more than two hundred thousand men armed with machine guns, grenades and canons took part in on of the most violent wars in America in the 20th century. Brazilian against Brazilian, in a conflict that involved air raid of big cities – such as Campinas, Santos and São Paulo - and resulted in more than two thousand deaths. Why did this war happen? Who took part in it? What were the details of the conflict? How did the war end? The documentary tells this episode of the country's history, not only grand but also unknown, with an accessible language and an involving rhythm.

A documentary on Boca do Lixo, a dowtown São Paulo square that became a tentpole for film distribution on the early 20th century, becoming, from the 1960s on, a production district for popular eroctic films and for avant-garde directors.

British documentary showing the intimacy of Ayrton Senna in Brazil. Like his farm in Tatuí, interior of the state of São Paulo, where he built a kart track. He travels by helicopter through the city of São Paulo, to his building in Santana, North Zone of the city. He shows his houses in São Paulo and Angra dos Reis, in Rio de Janeiro. And it speaks of its physical and psychological preparation.

The torrid love affair between a 40-year-old man who lives isolated from the world, in his small farm nearby São Paulo and a politically engaged 30-year-old journalist. One morning, after a night of wild lovemaking, he notices a hole made by sauba ants in his fence. This simple fact raises accusations and discord between the two lovers.

Carlos is a young man from the São Paulo middle class who works for a big company during a time when foreign automobile industries were settling in Brazil. Shortly after, he accepts a job at a factory that makes automobile parts, where he becomes manager. To a certain extent, he is a family man who works hard, earns well and lives unsatisfied. Without any prospects in his life to change the condition he rejects, his last resort is escaping.

A street vendor who lives in the outskirts of São Paulo returns home at night and does not find her teenager son. After a nonstop search, she finds out the boy was killed by the police and his body is missing. This is the beginning of this woman’s vertiginous fight for the right to bury her son, a fight that will not only unveil the excessive violence of one of most lethal police forces of the world, but also how structural is racism in Brazilian society.

In São Paulo, Brazil, the lonely 40-something guitar teacher Baby lives a tedious life in a low middle-class apartment. She is addicted to her only companions: cigarettes. Baby has a constant conflict with her two sisters, over a couch she inherited from their deceased aunt. When Max, a restaurant musician, moves to the next door apartment, Baby has a crush on him and sees a chance to have a life again. Soon they start having a love affair, and Baby decides to quit smoking. However, her abstinence will be tough to deal with, when she notices Max still misses his ex-wife.

On Carnival's eve, girl dreams of a man to stay with her during these four days. She meets a photographer, with whom she has an affair.

To the beat of his avant-garde and eclectic rhythms, Brazilian rapper Emicida performs hits from his album AmarElo at the São Paulo Municipal Theater.

Just before the Covid surge, a tour through futuristic carnivals of antiquity and the latest versions of things in São Paulo before the outbreak. Cars, bicycles and vehicles powered by petrochemicals still take one last ride in normality. In another parallel world, Carnival takes place in its various forms.

A hard working man goes to São Paulo to look for his twin brother unaware that he's famous for his lazyness.

Apparitions, mystical presences and lost stories from São Paulo and Rangoon are discovered over the course of a summer in the future. São Paulo spots are visited by people from the same family in 1991 and then around 30 or 40 years later. Meanwhile, family archives and memories in Tropical America and in Magical Asia are revealed.

An elegant dinner, which takes place in real time, brings together a group of intellectuals in the early 90s in São Paulo, Brazil: the hosts are the editor of the country's top news magazine and her husband, the company's lawyer, and the occasion is the wedding anniversary of the magazine publisher and his wife, a famous theater actress. The publisher has written an open letter to the president of the country, with serious denunciations, which will run in the upcoming issue. He risks being arrested this very evening. As tensions increase with the imminence of prison, secrets come to light revealing the conflict between the ethics sought in public life and the ethics practiced in private life.

Thiago and Guilherme, two teenage cousins from São Paulo, Brazil, are disturbed by their grandfather's funeral. To avoid the unpleasantness surrounding the event, they run away to the families cabin, taking their friend Priscila with them.

In present-day São Paulo, a trio of young hearts are about to break. Ricardo has both a steady boyfriend and a wandering eye for a new coworker. Isabella is taking a break from both her boyfriend and best friend Ricardo. And hopeless romantic Felipe has suddenly found himself caught between the two of them. These three have big dreams, yearning passion, and opinionated acquaintances, but they’re all unprepared for what’s to come from Cupid’s arrows.

Chico and Ana move to an apartment in São Paulo. As they unpack Ana found a cassette tape. It's a mix-tape that Clarisse made 20 years earlier to her husband Daniel. Albeit separated by time, both stories will cross paths in a unique way.

A Jewish teenager goes to a Catholic school and falls in love with a black Catholic girl.

Val is a woman with a strong personality, living in a turbulent city plagued by gangs and violence. "Moscow" takes place in a single night, in a jazz club in São Paulo.