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Motel Destino
Acclaimed filmmaker Karim Aïnouz’s Brazilian erotic noir sees an escaped young hustler flee to a roadside sex motel run by a hot-headed couple.
Director: Karim Aïnouz
Overview
21-year-old Heraldo lives on the wrong side of the law on Brazil’s northeastern coast, surviving through petty hustles. When a hit ordered by his gang leader goes wrong, he flees into the night and takes refuse in a seedy, neon-lit roadside sex motel. Its eccentric owner and restless wife agree to shelter him, but as tensions rise, desire and danger quickly collide under the scorching sun.
Director Karim Aïnouz delivers a steamy, pulpy Brazilian spin on The Postman Always Rings Twice, which premiered to acclaim at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Amid the motel’s neon lights and sun-drenched heat, jealousies simmer, loyalties shift, and forbidden desires spark, in a dance of lust, betrayal and survival.
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