The Dreamseller

A man sees another about to jump from the roof of a tower block and talks him out of it. He gives no name, nobody can put an identity to him, and a group soon gathers around him made up of the homeless, the unemployed and people on the point of giving up. Jayme Monjardim adapted Augusto Cury's bestselling novel. The story proceeds as a parable and takes aim in turn at medicine, advertising and the entertainment industry; what it says is direct and explicit. It reached a wide audience in Brazil because the source book was already widely read there. Critics found it too much like preaching. Who it is for: viewers who like Brazilian drama told as parable, and readers of the book. Who it is not for: anyone wanting implication rather than statement.