Best Brazilian history movies
Get ready to binge. We've found a collection of must-watch history films from Brazil, now streaming on Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Prime Video, and other top services!
Road 47 (2014)
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)
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)
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 (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)
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.
Netto Perde Sua Alma (2002)
Netto Perde Sua Alma (2002)
The story of a man who invented a country.
Os Senhores da Guerra (2016)
Os Senhores da Guerra (2016)
During the Rio Grande do Sul revolution of 1923, two brothers fight on opposite sides.
O Corneteiro Lopes (2003)
O Corneteiro Lopes (2003)
"O Corneteiro Lopes" is a story of love and courage. The city of Salvador is under siege by Brazilian troops, however, they lose strength in the course of battles. The Portuguese Luiz Lopes, alongside the Brazilian army, contrary to the orders of General Labatut, changes the fortunes of the Battle of Pirajá.
Sertânia (2019)
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.
Brave New Land (2000)
Brave New Land (2000)
Diogo is a cartographer and artist who is encharged to set the new frontiers of Portuguese Colonies in South America. When he reaches the center of the continent, finds apparently nothing but wilderness and ‘uncivilized’ natives with strange ways of living. But Captain Pedro, the rude scout who guides him through the jungle, involves Diogo in an involuntary act of violence which will tie him in an unusual way to that far away country. At the same time, the Portuguese colonists are trying to make peace with Guaicuru Indians (one of the few natives with horse-riding abilities). But peace doesn’t ever have a low price.
Guerra do Paraguay (2016)
Guerra do Paraguay (2016)
A soldier coming home after the Paraguay War meets a theater group. A shock between war and art.
Hallelujah Gretchen (1976)
Hallelujah Gretchen (1976)
A German family moves to a small town in the interior of the state of Paraná, Brazil, and buys a hotel there, which soon becomes sort of a meeting point for Nazi sympathizers.
A Certain Captain Rodrigo (1971)
A Certain Captain Rodrigo (1971)
A knight, half soldier, half gaudério, dolphinfish hair in the sun, guitar on his back, enters the sleepy town of Santa Fe. Nobody could imagine that this man was also getting into their lives. Singing and drinking was winning the hearts of women and admiration of men. A storyteller of adventures, wars or lies? Based on the book by Erico Verissimo.
Minha Fama de Mau (2019)
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.
Carlota Joaquina, Princess of Brazil (1995)
Carlota Joaquina, Princess of Brazil (1995)
The Spanish Infanta Carlota Joaquina is promised to D. João VI at the age of 10. Forced to leave for Portugal, Carlota suffers a great disappointment when she meets her promised prince. With the death of D. José, Carlota Joaquina and D. João VI inherit the Portuguese crown. However, frightened by the French Revolution and the approach of Napoleon's army, they decide to flee to their colony: Brazil.
Meu Nome é Gal (2023)
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.
Heleno (2011)
Heleno (2011)
José Henrique Fonseca crafts an ambitious and long overdue homage to a central icon in Brazil’s 20th century history. Reminiscent of film noir classics, the biopic tells the glorious and tragic story of the legendary football striker Heleno de Freitas. The sumptuous black and white cinematography reflects the chic life of Rio de Janeiro in the 1940s as it fell under the spell of sports royalty. Heleno was no doubt one of the most popular players of his time for his bravura in the field and magnificent goal-scoring that lead the Botafogo team to the top and himself into a vicious downward spiral.
The Head of Gumercindo Saraiva (2018)
The Head of Gumercindo Saraiva (2018)
A fiction based on true events, which happened at the end of the Federalist Revolution in 1895, in the south of Brazil. When Gumercindo Saraiva was killed in an ambush and buried at graveyard at some roadside, the legalists discovered it, unburied the body, and cut its head off so it would be taken to the Governor as a war trophy. Major Ramiro de Oliveira and two men were chosen for the unusual task. The film tells the saga of the Capitan Franciso Saraiva, son of Gumercindo, and his team of five riders in the attempt to recover his father's head. The moments of approximation and distancing between the pursued and the pursuers, the confrontation and the conflicts, the duels that happened on both sides until the final encounter, when there are only Ramiro and Francisco left standing; all these events are thoroughly narrated in the film. The lessons learned in the journey blossom at end and both men, due to everything they went through, decide for an honorable outcome for them both.
The Patient (2018)
The Patient (2018)
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.
Dr. Gama (2021)
Dr. Gama (2021)
Based on the biography of Luiz Gama, one of the most important characters in Brazilian history, a black man who used the laws and courts to free more than 500 slaves. Born of a free womb, Gama was sold into slavery at the age of 10 to pay off his father's gambling debts. Even as a slave, he became literate, studied and earned his own freedom, becoming one of the most respected lawyers of his time. An abolitionist and republican who inspired an entire country.
Case of the Naves Brothers (1967)
Case of the Naves Brothers (1967)
After their relative and associate runs way, the Naves brothers inform the police of the incident, who end up arresting them under the accusation of murdering the missing person. The brothers are tortured in order to confess a crime they did not commit while their wives are raped.
Baptism of Blood (2007)
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.
A Moreninha (1970)
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.
Lope: The Outlaw (2010)
Lope: The Outlaw (2010)
A chronicle of the life of Spanish playwright and poet Lope de Vega, who dominated Spain's early Golden Age of Theater in the 16th century. Lope returns home from war and enters the theater world when a producer's beautiful daughter takes a shine to him. They embark on a passionate affair as his plays begin to win popular acclaim.
Irmã Dulce (2014)
Irmã Dulce (2014)
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.
Chatô, The King of Brazil (2015)
Chatô, The King of Brazil (2015)
The true story of Assis Chateaubriand, the first magnate of communications in Brazil. Due to his influence during the late 1930s up to the early 1960s, he has come to be called 'the Brazilian Citizen Kane'.
Peacetime (2009)
Peacetime (2009)
Rio de Janeiro, April 18, 1945. Brazil's foreign policy aligns closely with that of the United States and opens a brief period of democratic rule after the end of World War 2. For years, hundreds of people were arrested and tortured by the Vargas regime. But with the external pressure, several political prisoners gain freedom.
Mauá - O Imperador e o Rei (1999)
Mauá - O Imperador e o Rei (1999)
A movie about a Brazilian entrepreneur who rivalled American's richest man at his time, well-known Rockfeller. Irineu Evangelista de Souza in 1867 had $155.000 contos de reis, meanwhile the Brazilian Governement annual budget was 97.000 contos de reis. The movie shows his life from poverty to riches and back to poverty again, as is common in Brazil, rich people die poor.
Brenda Lee and the Palace of Princesses (2021)
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 transsexuals", activist who founded the first support house for people with HIV/AIDS in Brazil. She has a pension for trans women who, for the most part, live off prostitution. Despite the reality of violence in which they live, inside the house, the transsexuals are welcomed by Brenda, who teaches them to want more out of life.