Maeve Jinkings

Federal police officers follow a DNA trail to solve a robbery beyond Brazil's borders in this explosive drama series inspired by real crimes.

The convergences and complexities of life in a middle-class suburb of Recife, Brazil, are played out in mesmerizing style in this stunning debut feature from film critic turned director Kleber Mendonça Filho. Taking a broad, diverse set of strikingly realistic characters - including a bored housewife seeking solace in technology, a descendant of colonial landowners struggling with his dark, mysterious past and a security company employed to provide protection to them all – Filho paints a rich, detailed portrait of a community connected and engulfed by fear, desire and the incessant murmur of modern life. A beautifully subtle, fiercely intelligent and utterly engrossing snap-shot of present-day Brazil, this bold, compelling and endlessly intriguing film has announced one of the most exciting new voices in contemporary world cinema.

The latest from acclaimed Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho (BACURAU, AQUARIUS) is a multidimensional journey across time, sound, architecture, and filmmaking that explores the rich, complicated history of the filmmaker’s home city of Recife—the coastal capital of the state of Pernambuco—through the great movie theaters that served as spaces of conviviality during the twentieth century. Paeans to dreams and progress, these temples of cinema have also come to reflect major shifts in Brazilian society and politics. Combining archival documentary, mystery, film clips, and personal memories, PICTURES OF GHOSTS is a map of a city through the lens of cinema, offering a delightful tour in the company of a master storyteller.

Set in the mid-1960s, young Cora travels with her grandmother to her hometown in Italy following her father's death in a car accident.