Luiza's Desert

As a privileged teenager living in an affluent suburb of Rio de Janeiro, Jean has little to worry about beyond games, grades and girls. But as his overbearing father drags the family into debt, Jean is forced into a change of lifestyle which opens his eyes to the world beyond his 'casa grande' - not least that of the feisty, mixed-race firecracker Luiza. Cultures, classes and generations collide in this engrossing coming-of-age drama from Brazil.

Diogo (17) has a little quirk: he likes to call his mother's female therapy patients and masturbate while listening to them on the phone. One of these patients is Angela (43), a woman who was just left by her husband When Diogo calls Angela, she thinks it's her husband calling. She starts having a relationship with the silence on the other end of the line. But when she finds out it's Diogo, she's disgusted. She's furious. But, most of all, she's attracted to this person who showed so much interest in her. The only person who called her every day. Diogo helps Angela see that she can have a new beginning and she shows him his way to independence. But they have to face a number of obstacles: There's the age difference, Diogo's mother, and, especially, his own path to adulthood.

A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.

A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.

A disillusioned psychologist tries to commit suicide until he strikes up a friendship with an unlikely saviour who teaches him a new way of living.

A Cape Verdean woman navigates her way through Lisbon, following the scanty physical traces her deceased husband left behind and discovering his secret, illicit life.