A novela das 8 (Prime Time Soap)

Brazil 2011, 105 min, English subtitles

Disco and dictatorship? Brazil’s love of dancing with the extremes is evident from the apparently eternal enthusiasm for telenovelas. So director Rocha looks back at the year 1978, to the time of military dictatorship, disco beat and resistance. In doing so, he toys with various forms of the soap opera: the high-class prostitute Dora, who can barely wait for her daily dose of her favorite series, “Dancin’ Days”, and the revolutionary Amanda both go underground after a fatal incident. Old secrets have barely given rise to new hope when dark powers arrive on the scene.