Mulheres do Brasil (2006)

Brazil is a huge country, with vast regional and economic differences, and this film gives a good insight into some of this variety, through the lives of five very different Brazilian women. Based on stories written by different female authors, these women show what motivates them, and where they end up as a result. Their stories are augmented by interviews with real women in similar situations, so the film has the feel sometimes of a documentary.

There is a spoiled only child from Salvador who constantly manages to pull the wool over her parents'eyes, but not the maid's; a girl from a samba family in the shanty towns of Rio, whose whole life revolves round the parade; a middle-class girl studying tourism at Uni in Maceio who gets challenged by one of the lace-workers she interviews to look for more from life; an unsatisfied coffee-bar worker from Curitiba who falls in love with the voice of a radio presenter; and a single professional Mum from São Paulo, struggling to get back into work. Interesting and some great moments, but lacks something to hold the different stories together, and make it more of a unified narrative.