André Simonetti

In a desperate attempt to make ends meet, a father takes on a lucrative full-time job that emasculates him.

Leandro is a young man frustrated by his job. His master’s thesis is on the military dictatorship in Brazil. That takes him into a search for recently deceased artist Jairo Mendes’ controversial film The Beheading Game, which was censored by Brazilian censors in 1973.

An evening in an old time dance hall in Sao Paulo introduces us to local characters who reminisce about the past, wonder about the future, have fun, flirt, fight and, of course, dance. Its earthy humour and eternal themes of ageing, loneliness and desire is an antidote to grumpy old men and women everywhere.

Ophelia is a 20-year-old girl who lives with her mother and grew up without a father. She suspects that he is Tedesco, a German artist who has just returned to Brazil. Determined to find him, she sends a letter notifying him of her arrival and that she will swim to him from the Santos bridge. Upon learning of the imminent arrival, Tedesco asks Smutter, his great friend, to start following her closely.