Policarpo is a chauvinistic patriot, a major who tries to find solutions for Brazilian problems using only the resources of his own country. His visionary and idealistic temperament is behind his strange ideas about how to build a great nation.

After an extended period directing original screenplays, dos Santos returned to the creative engagement with literature that was the wellspring of his early masterpieces, offering a combinatory adaptation of five stories by the renowned Brazilian novelist João Guimarães Rosa. Openly embracing a mode of magical realism, dos Santos' celebrated film tells the story of a farming family defined by the absence of its father who abruptly abandoned his wife and children, sailing away down the river, including his son who continues to communicate with his father, speaking daily to him from the river bank. While offering an evocative vision of rural Brazil as a timeless land of mystery and solemnity, The Third Bank of the River is also bitingly satiric in the remarkable depiction of religious belief when the family moves to the city and its youngest member, a mesmerizing little girl, is revealed to be a kind of saint, capable of miraculous acts. -Harvard Film Archive

Rita is about to marry a wealthy physician, Dr. Augusto Vilela. One night, Vilela's best friend, Camilo, is brought to the hospital, dying from an overdose. Vilela saves his life and introduces him to his fiancée. Rita and Camilo fall in love and, confused about what to do, the girl goes to a fortuneteller to seek for advic

A star medical examiner is called to Brasília, the administrative capital of Brazil, to confirm the identity of a beautiful, young congressional aide's dead body. But his scientific rigor soon leads him to details of a multi-layered political scandal.

The film tells the story of an intuitive, adventurous man who loved his country and being Brazilian. This man fought to be loyal to himself. His music is a transparent portrait of his genius, intuition, freedom, adventure and passion for Brazil.

Tati is in love with Marcelo, a guy who enjoys dating lots of girls. Honest to a fault, Tati wears her heart on her sleeve, but her intense affection only drives Marcelo further away. After attending a lecture by a young biology professor named Conrado, she decides to put his controversial theories into practice in her own love life. Conrado has developed a scientific guide to seduction, inspired by Charles Darwin's theories, comparing the dating behaviour of young people to that of animals in nature. Tati becomes his eager test subject. At first, the experiment seems to be working: Marcelo is showing interest again. But things take an unexpected turn when real feelings begin to spark between the professor and the student.