Canastra Suja 2016

Batista [Marco Ricca] is a heavy-drinking valet at a luxury hotel on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, living with his wife [Adriana Esteves] and their three children: Pedro [Pedro Nercessian], Emília [Bianca Bin], and Rita [Cacá Ottoni], a teenage girl with autism. The film follows the frictions at home and the personal struggles of each family member, painting a stark portrait of a household where love, frustration, and danger collide.

Pedro [Pedro Nercessian] bears the weight of his father’s addiction and grows ashamed of him, even tagging the wall with offenses as a quiet protest. Batista arranges a job for his son in the hotel’s parking garage, hoping to give him a path, but trouble arrives when a client notices a missing cellphone and a small crew—Batista, Pedro, and a third man—become suspects. When Pedro refuses to let his bag be searched, tensions rise, and he ends up leaving the job, fueling a rift between father and son. The hotel’s CCTV footage paints Batista in a negative light, and he is fired, pushing his alcoholism further into the foreground. Eventually, the client claims to have found the phone at home, shifting the dynamic but not the underlying strain.

Seeking independence, Pedro turns to his sister’s boyfriend, Tatu [David Junior], for a job. Tatu introduces him to Celso’s mansion, where Pedro is drawn into a shadowy world: a team of young men paid to have sex with wealthy clients. The cycle of risk and power intensifies when Donato [Remo Rocha], a regular client, takes an interest in Pedro and invites him to Armação dos Búzios. Too anxious to fully commit, Pedro initially declines but soon finds himself in a room with Donato. The encounter escalates quickly, and a tense fight breaks out when Pedro, unable to go through with it, asks Donato to end things; Donato’s aggression alarms Celso [Milhem Cortaz], who threatens Pedro and Tatu. A lucky break comes when one of Celso’s clients recognizes Pedro from the hotel and intervenes, sending him back to his parents’ house.

Meanwhile, Maria [Adriana Esteves] begins an affair with Tatu, visiting regularly to sell steroids and carry on clandestine trysts. In a troubling moment, Maria ties Rita to her bed to ensure she can pursue her relationship without interruption. Emília [Bianca Bin], meanwhile, maintains a second relationship of her own—the affair with her boss, a wealthy doctor. The tension inside the household deepens when Emília and Rita are together, and a pregnancy test turns out positive, prompting a mix of fear and tears.

The film weaves together these private dramas as Maria discovers the pregnancy test among the trash and pushes Emília to reveal who the father might be, though Emília dodges the question. As the weeks unfold, Batista staggers home after another night spent drinking, and the family grapples with the mounting consequences of the secrets they keep. The revelation shakes everyone: Emília concedes that the test did not belong to her but to Rita, and the household responds by pushing Batista out. In the aftermath, Emília learns Batista is not the father, a twist that ripples through the family’s relationships.

In a final turn of events, the family appears to be finding a way to rebuild, though the pain lingers. Emília cradles Ritinha - Recém Nascida [Eloá Vitória Almeida de Lima], a newborn whose presence adds a new layer of complexity and implication to the earlier revelations. The ending suggests that Tatu is connected to Rita’s pregnancy, underscoring how the intertwined loyalties and betrayals of the adults have shaped the younger generation’s lives.

The film is a stark, unflinching look at how addiction, exploitation, and intimate betrayals intersect within a Rio de Janeiro family, offering a raw, humanizing portrait of resilience amid chaos.