One of the earliest and still proudest examples of the Brazilian Cinema Nôvo, based on the celebrated Graciliano Ramos novel — a South American Grapes of Wrath — about a peasant family scratching out a living in the inclement Northeast. It offers a brutally materialistic vision of life, in the best and most cinematic sense of the word. Nothing exists beyond the at-hand realities of the environment; "hell," for a child, is defined by the sun, the heat, the parched earth, the jagged topography. Direct and simple in its presentation, this is at the same time a supremely skillful piece of moviemaking, with a very affecting climax photographed from the point of view of a dying dog. Directed by Nelson Pereira dos Santos. (1962) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.