O império do desejo

A widow named Sandra is on a trip from the city to reclaim her remote beach house from squatters. She picks up a hippie couple along the way, eventually inviting them to become house-sitters at her coastal getaway. Aided by a shyster named Doctor Carvalho, she successfully evicts the home-invaders and an erotic ménage is suddenly sparked when Sandra’s boyfriend arrives. Parallel to this, Sandra is horrified as she hears stories of a ‘vindictive angel’ living in the area, out to kill uncultured loafers, adding a violent counterpoint to the mood of euphoria.

O império do desejo was the first Brazilian film to be designated by the loosening military censors as ‘pornographic spectacle’ and released in cinemas freely as such, setting an important precedent for 1980s Brazilian film culture. Originally programmed by Hubert Bals for IFFR in the mid-1980s, the film never showed up due to various complications. Unavailable and nearly forgotten for 30 years, the festival presented it in 2012 in a brand new 35mm print.