Best South American history movies

Os Senhores da Guerra (2016)

During the Rio Grande do Sul revolution of 1923, two brothers fight on opposite sides.

Sertânia (2019)

When bandits take the town of Sertânia, Antão gets shot, arrested, and left to die. Bleeding out, Antão's delirious mind begins to recall the events that led up to the incident through a sequence of increasingly unreliable fever dreams.

Time and the Wind (2013)

Based on Érico Verissimo's literary trilogy, Time and the Wind follows 150 years of the Terra Cambará family and their opponents, the Amaral family. The struggles between the two families begin in the missions and lasts until the end of the 19th century. The film also features the period of formation of the state of Rio Grande do Sul and the dispute of territory between the Portuguese and Spanish crowns.

Road 47 (2014)

During World War II, looking up the Mountain, in Italy, a Brazilian Expeditionary Force - FEB - mines weeping platoon is hit by a panic-attack that sets them running aimlessly right in the middle of 'no man's land'. Desperate cold and hungry, the ill-prepared soldiers have to choose between facing military court or delve deeper into enemy lines. After a tense discussion, they decide to save their faces with the Brazilian Army by tackling a daring military objective: to disarm the most feared minefield in Italy. On their way there, they end meeting two others deserters; a remorseful Italian soldier trying to join the Partigianos and German officer who is just simply tired of war. with unexpected help of their ex-enemy, the soldiers are set to accomplish a mission that so far had been deemed impossible.

The Battle of Canudos (1997)

At the end of the 19th century, a poor family comes to the rural Canudos, a community led by Antônio Conselheiro, seen by many as a holy prophet. Their ways bother the powerful people of the region, and the newly founded Republic sends their army to destroy the settlement, which culminates in one of the bloodiest wars in the history of Brazil.

Dirty Hearts (2012)

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 (2005)

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.

A Matadeira (1994)

Canudos was a small village in northeastern Brazil, founded by the messianic leader Antônio Conselheiro and massacred by a powerful army until the death of the last of its 30,000 inhabitants, on October 5, 1897. The film tells the story of the Canudos massacre from an English cannon, nicknamed by the backlands people "A Matadeira", which was transported by twenty teams of oxen through the backlands to fire a single shot.

La Esmeralda 1879 (2010)

Revolves around the naval Battle of Iquique between the Peruvian ironclad monitor 'Huáscar' and the Chilean wooden corvette 'Esmeralda'.

Rodriguez: Son of Rebellion (2007)

At the dawn of the 19th century, a whole generation of extraordinary men fights to get rid of the Spanish yoke and turn Chile into an independent nation. Among these brave men a legendary figure rose: Manuel Rodríguez. Passionate and brilliant, the lawyer Rodríguez became the attorney of the local authority, deputy, minister for several government departments and supreme director by popular acclaim. However, he wasn't as successful in any of his official positions as he was in his role as a spy and guerrilla commander, leading the resistance against the enemy.

Baptism of Blood (2007)

In São Paulo, in the late 1960s, the convent of the Dominican friars became a trench of resistance to the military dictatorship that governs Brazil. Moved by Christian ideals, frets Betto, Oswaldo, Fernando, Ivo and Tito came to support the guerrilla group Ação Libertadora Nacional, commanded by Carlos Marighella.

Rebellion in Patagonia (1974)

In 1920, workers from Patagonia, in Southern Argentina, gather around an anarcho-syndicalist society and go on strike, demanding better working conditions. When the situation turns unsustainable, President Yrigoyen sends Lieutenant Colonel Zavala to impose order.

Naive Cinema (1979)

An essay film on the editing of erotic movies.

The Maias: Story of a Portuguese Family (2014)

The tragedy and comedy in Carlos' life begins, grows and ends like the tragedy and comedy of Portugal. In the company of his close friend, João da Ega, allegedly a brilliant writer, Carlos, with his idle existence as an aristocratic doctor, spends his time to enjoying friends and lovers. Until he falls in love. She is a new character in this revolutionary novel. It's a vertiginous passion that goes beyond that past gloominess to reach a new and darker abyss, incest.

The Dead Queen (2018)

Inspired on the true events of the Portuguese king Don Pedro (14th Century) which unburied his mistress to make her queen after dead. This film tells the story of Pedro, a man admitted to a psychiatric hospital for traveling by car with the corpse of his beloved, recalling simultaneously three different lives: one from the past, another from nowadays and another one from an distopic future.

I Seek Your Help to Bury a Man (2023)

Empire of Brazil, 1870. A queer indigenous body slowly dies on the cross while a transgender gypsy woman is banned by her people. A half-breed soldier stands in the middle of the way. A child and an old woman cross their stories like destined lines on the palm of a hand.

A Moreninha (1970)

Carolina gathers some old friends in her house on Paquetá Island, in Rio de Janeiro. She will find, among them, the boyfriend she had during her childhood and with whom she had exchanged vows of eternal love.

Brenda Lee and the Palace of Princesses (2021)

A musical that brings a bit of the history of Brenda Lee, called the "guardian angel of transvestites", activist who founded the first support house for people with HIV/AIDS in Brazil. She has a pension for transvestites who, for the most part, live off prostitution. Despite the reality of violence in which they live, inside the house, the transvestites are welcomed by Brenda, who teaches them to want more out of life.

Gonzaga: From Father to Son (2012)

Luiz Gonzaga decides to change his destiny and leaves his childhood home for the big city to overcome a romance. When he arrives, he meets a woman he falls in love with, the Odaleia (Nanda Costa). After the birth of his son and his wife's health complications, he decides to return to the road to ensure a better future for his son. He has a friend in Rio de Janeiro and with him leaves the little one and heads to Brazil. He didn't imagine that this distance between them would develop into a complicated relationship, enhanced by the strong personalities of both. Based on conversations between father and son, this is the story of Luiz Gonzaga, a singer and accordion player known as Rei do Baião or Gonzagão.

Minha Fama de Mau (2019)

An emotional dive into the music and life of Erasmo Carlos, from his years as a young rock-and-roller looking for gigs through his enduring musical partnership with Roberto Carlos.

Meu Nome é Gal (2023)

Film about the Bahian singer dives into the moment when shy Gracinha becomes Gal Costa, during the violent, innovative and mind-blowing years that helped shape Brazil's greatest singer.

Guerra Civil (2024)

The Horned Frog (2023)

Year 1866. Venancio, a young gaucho, embarks on a journey to escape from a curse through a war-torn region desperately seeking salvation among rustlers, priests, shamans and deserters. The stronger his fear is, the more real the legend becomes.

Love Strange Love (1982)

A man remembers forty-eight crucial hours in his life when, as a child, he visited his mother, the favorite woman of an important politician, in a bordello owned by him, right before some important political changes in 1937 Brazil. In those hours, he discovers his own sexuality.

Kardec (2019)

The story of Allan Kardec, from his days as an educator to his contribution to the spiritist codification.

Getulio (2014)

The movie depicts the political crisis that led to the suicide of president Getúlio Vargas, in the 19 days that preceded August 24, 1954. The crisis began with the attempted assassination of journalist and politician Carlos Lacerda in August 5, 1954, at rua Toneleros, Rio de Janeiro, in which Major Vaz was assassinated instead. Investigations pointed to Gregório Fortunato, chief of Vargas' personal guard, as the orderer of the frustrated assassination. This incident was one of the most importants in the history of Brazil.

Zuzu Angel (2006)

Covering the last years of the famous Brazilian fashion designer in her doomed quest for justice, Zuzu Angel follows the case of her activist son Stuart's arrest, torture, murder, and subsequent corpse disposal by the military forces in early 1970s Rio de Janeiro, during the darkest era of Brazilian military regime and media censorship.

Lula, the Son of Brazil (2010)

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.

Nothing to Lose (2018)

Authorized biopic of Brazilian evangelical bishop Edir Macedo, founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and owner of Record TV network. Based on a book trilogy of the same name, the movie tells the story of the self-made man who faced several moments of turbulence while pursuing his conviction.

Hebe (2019)

Hebe Camargo is one of the most emblematic entertainments in Brazil. At her 60s, she went on to control her own career and, despite the criticism, the dreadful husband and the powerful and sexist bosses, she revealed herself to the public as an extraordinary woman, capable of overcoming any personal or professional crisis.