The Bandit

Lima Barreto's 1953 film is set in the arid backlands of north-eastern Brazil. The armed bands known as cangaco were a reality of the period; the film opens with Captain Galdino Ferreira's band abducting a schoolteacher for ransom. Teodoro, one of his men, falls in love with her and flees with her. The film is counted as Brazilian cinema's first international success. It won a prize at Cannes in 1953, a point no Brazilian film had reached before. It is also the best-known product of the Vera Cruz studio's attempt to produce at a Hollywood scale. The narrative is built close to the American western: horses, guns, pursuit and wide landscape. But the music and the costume are entirely local, and Ze do Norte's songs give the film its identity. Who it's for: those interested in Brazilian film history and local counterparts to the western. Who it's not for: viewers seeking historical accuracy about the cangaco; the film puts adventure first.