
Directing
Ruy Guerra
Born
1931-08-22 (95)
Place of birth
Maputo, Moçambique
Known for
Directing
Credits
66 titles
Ruy Alexandre Guerra Coelho Pereira (born August 22, 1931) is a Portuguese-Brazilian film director, screenwriter, film editor, and actor. Guerra was born a Portuguese citizen in Lourenço Marques (today Maputo) in Mozambique, when it was still Portuguese colony. Guerra studied at IDHEC film school in Paris from 1952. In 1958 he started his career as an assistant director in several French films. Later on he immigrated to Brazil, where he directed his first feature film, Os Cafajestes (1962).
Known for
NRNo synopsis available yet.
O País do Cinema
2016
7.4A few decades after the destruction of the Inca Empire, a Spanish expedition led by the infamous Aguirre leaves the mountains of Peru and goes down the Amazon River in search of the lost city of El Dorado. When great difficulties arise, Aguirre’s men start to wonder whether their quest will lead them to prosperity or certain death.
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
1972
8.2An abandoned tumbledown theater in the outback of Paraíba state is the initial setting of a film about cinema, which explores the testimonials of the novelist and playwright Ariano Suassuna and other filmmakers such as Ruy Guerra, Julio Bressane, Ken Loach, Andrzej Wajda, Karim Ainouz, José Padilha, Hector Babenco, Vilmos Zsigmond, Béla Tarr, Gus Van Sant and Jia Zhangke. They all respond to two basic questions: why do they make movies and why do they serve the seventh art. The filmmakers share their thoughts about time, narrative, rhythm, light, movement, the meaning of tragedy, the audience‘s desires and the boundaries with other forms of art.
About Cinema
2015
8.0Conducted from interviews with personalities who lived with Leila Diniz (1945-1972), the documentary is a record of an era and, above all, it rescues the participation in Brazilian culture of the actress who opened the way for the sexual revolution during the dark years of the dictatorship.
Já que Ninguém me Tira Para Dançar
2021
6.0In the 1930s, in the South of State of Bahia, Brazil, an adventurer with no name or history, who has already been shot seven times, gets involved in the battle for land and cacao plantations. His plan is to take the place of "Colonel" Santana, taking his wife and money. He starts a bloody conflict, in which many simple people and landowners die.
Of Gods and the Undead
1970
5.0In 1965, a year after the military coup in Brazil, an oasis of freedom opened in the country's capital. The Brasília Film Festival: a landmark of cultural and political resistance. Its story is that of Brazilian cinema itself.
Candango: Memoirs from a Festival
2020
Film credits
2020s · 6 titles
8.0Conducted from interviews with personalities who lived with Leila Diniz (1945-1972), the documentary is a record of an era and, above all, it rescues the participation in Brazilian culture of the actress who opened the way for the sexual revolution during the dark years of the dictatorship.
Já que Ninguém me Tira Para Dançar
2021
5.0In 1965, a year after the military coup in Brazil, an oasis of freedom opened in the country's capital. The Brasília Film Festival: a landmark of cultural and political resistance. Its story is that of Brazilian cinema itself.
Candango: Memoirs from a Festival
2020
8.023 years in the making, “Pereio, Eu Te Odeio!” is a documentary on legendary Brazilian actor Paulo Cesar Pereio, an irreverent and controversial artist and public figure, as told by the testimonies of friends, family, and society members who hate him.
Peréio, Eu Te Odeio!
2023
NRVladimir Carvalho's Cinema of Inequality marked the documentary filmmaker's trajectory over decades of activity. Considered one of the most important Brazilian documentary filmmakers in activity, his images influenced the emergence of Cinema Novo and the new Brazilian documentary years later. Quando a Coisa Vira Outra covers the most important films made by Vladimir, revealing where ideas come from to show the true reality of a country.
Quando a Coisa Vira Outra
2022
NRA documentary about the work of filmmaker, screenwriter, actor and film director Ruy Guerra. The audiovisual collage presents the director's trajectory, from his first experience with cinema up to his most recent thoughts on his work.
Tempo Ruy
2021
10.0A woman with a dream: to fly. During a frenetic search for the final widget for her gadget, pursuers will try to stop her.
Asa Real
2024
2010s · 9 titles
8.2An abandoned tumbledown theater in the outback of Paraíba state is the initial setting of a film about cinema, which explores the testimonials of the novelist and playwright Ariano Suassuna and other filmmakers such as Ruy Guerra, Julio Bressane, Ken Loach, Andrzej Wajda, Karim Ainouz, José Padilha, Hector Babenco, Vilmos Zsigmond, Béla Tarr, Gus Van Sant and Jia Zhangke. They all respond to two basic questions: why do they make movies and why do they serve the seventh art. The filmmakers share their thoughts about time, narrative, rhythm, light, movement, the meaning of tragedy, the audience‘s desires and the boundaries with other forms of art.
About Cinema
2015
NRIt is said that Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez never allowed for a film adaptation of his singular masterpiece 'One Hundred Years of Solitude', arguably the most influential novel in any language of the second half of the twentieth century, to be produced. However, the prolific Colombian writer had strong ties to the movies.
Gabo & Cinema
2016
5.7When the Netuno Circus returns to Fernando de Noronha, it brings back a young man with a turbulent past. Pedro is now Zolah, the human cannonball. When secrets surface, bizarre family reunions rival the circus performances.
Blue Blood
2014
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Saudade
2017
7.6Carlos is a man doomed by restless memories, that meets with himself, in a time warp. Young Carlos faces the forgetfulness of old Carlos, who doesn't recognize his own appearance. They get a package. But the package seems odd. The knot that ties, the smell, the handwriting on the envelope: this could only be sent by his father, Ernesto, who has been dead for many years. A father who always created unusual situations. In this time warp, Carlos is split in two: one Carlos remembers and the other forgets the moments he spent with his father.
Oblivious Memory
2018
7.8Chico Buarque is a constant presence in Brazil's art scene and makes up its citizen's popular culture. This wealth in music, poems, theater and novels has been created over the last 50 years and in this film Chico Buarque converses about his memories, shows, daily life, work methods, creative process, in summary all his trajectory. The musician’s search for his German brother, whom he never got to meet, serves as one of the axis for the narrative.
Chico: Brazilian Artist
2015
5.2The project '5 x slum, now by ourselves' gathered over 80 young people from Rio's favelas (slums), selected through workshops, script and filmmaking techniques to create a feature film consisting of five stories that reflect different facets of the daily lives of residents of these communities - with the promise of escape stereotypical representations.
5x Favela, Now by Ourselves
2010
7.5No synopsis available yet.
The Man Who Killed John Wayne
2017
6.7A deep investigation, in the way of a poetic essay, on one of the main Latin American movements in cinema, analyzed via the thoughts of its main authors, who invented, in the early 1960s, a new way of making movies in Brazil, with a political attitude, always near to people's problems, that combined art and revolution.
Cinema Novo
2016
2000s · 3 titles
6.0A 10-part documentary about 10 Brazilian filmmakers: Linduarte Noronha, Jorge Furtado, Ruy Guerra, Murilo Salles, Paulo Caldas, Walter Salles & Daniela Thomas, David Neves, Julio Bressane, Ana Carolina and Carlos Reichenbach.
A Linguagem do Cinema
2001
6.7A woman is taken along with her mother in 1910 to a far-away desert by her husband, and after his passing, is forced to spend the next 59 years of her life hopelessly trying to escape it.
The House of Sand
2005
NRFrench girl lost in Rio de Janeiro has a peculiar meeting with the nacional cinema maphia. Who can save her?
Breathless
2006
1990s · 2 titles
1980s · 1 titles
1970s · 6 titles
7.4A few decades after the destruction of the Inca Empire, a Spanish expedition led by the infamous Aguirre leaves the mountains of Peru and goes down the Amazon River in search of the lost city of El Dorado. When great difficulties arise, Aguirre’s men start to wonder whether their quest will lead them to prosperity or certain death.
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
1972
6.2An alien, with the ability to travel through time, visits our planet at various eras.
Le Maître du temps
1971
6.4Six people find a mysterious mark in the center of their left hand and all independently go to Easter Island in hopes to uncover the mystery.
The Suns of Easter Island
1972
7.0When Captain Amaso Delano approaches a three-masted ship in distress to offer his assistance, he discovers a most unusual situation: its captain, Don Benito Cereno, seems to command a very scant crew, moreover composed only of Africans. Cereno is in very bad condition and apparently survives only thanks to the affectionate care of his faithful body-servant slave Atimbo. When Delano leaves the dilapidated ship to seek relief, Cereno jumps in the boat and explains to the Americans that he has been the victim of a revolt of the slaves. The ship is now in their hands.
Benito Cereno
1971
NRThe importance of the Cannes Film Festival in world terms and what it represented for Brazil in 1971. For Brazilian cinema, Cannes 71 represented the transition from film to industrialized production. It is the meeting of producers, technicians, critics , celebrities in general, offering opportunities for greater knowledge and renewal of values
Brazil in Cannes
1971
7.0A true friendship develops between Jojô, a prostitute Rosa, and the young Eduardo, who survive on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Everything goes well until ambition takes over the trio, causing friends to aim for bigger goals, planning a big assault that could cost them their lives.
Branded For Life
1977
Series credits
Behind the camera
6.0In the 1930s, in the South of State of Bahia, Brazil, an adventurer with no name or history, who has already been shot seven times, gets involved in the battle for land and cacao plantations. His plan is to take the place of "Colonel" Santana, taking his wife and money. He starts a bloody conflict, in which many simple people and landowners die.
Of Gods and the Undead
1970
6.0In the 1930s, in the South of State of Bahia, Brazil, an adventurer with no name or history, who has already been shot seven times, gets involved in the battle for land and cacao plantations. His plan is to take the place of "Colonel" Santana, taking his wife and money. He starts a bloody conflict, in which many simple people and landowners die.
Of Gods and the Undead
1970
6.1While Erendira, a beautiful teenage girl, has a surreal mystical vision, her grandmother's house catches on fire and burns to the ground. Her grandmother holds Erendira responsible and, in order to extract restitution from the girl, forces her into prostitution. Erendira's surreal mystical experiences continue while her grandmother grows rich from exploiting her.
Erendira
1983
6.3An ornithologist goes on a field trip to a deserted island near the mainland with his wife and small son, and is joined by the wife's sister, who is getting over an abortion; later, an escaped convict is discovered. A situation which may seem naturalistic enough, but the form never is: incidents are isolated, cross-relations are oblique, emotions are unexplained.
Sweet Hunters
1970
6.3An ornithologist goes on a field trip to a deserted island near the mainland with his wife and small son, and is joined by the wife's sister, who is getting over an abortion; later, an escaped convict is discovered. A situation which may seem naturalistic enough, but the form never is: incidents are isolated, cross-relations are oblique, emotions are unexplained.
Sweet Hunters
1970
NROn two mysterious journeys, Neta and Deodato are driven by a shared purpose: to fulfill a mission. Guided by vengeance and the search for meaning in life, they follow paths that could transform their destinies.
Time, Knifed
2026
7.6Carlos is a man doomed by restless memories, that meets with himself, in a time warp. Young Carlos faces the forgetfulness of old Carlos, who doesn't recognize his own appearance. They get a package. But the package seems odd. The knot that ties, the smell, the handwriting on the envelope: this could only be sent by his father, Ernesto, who has been dead for many years. A father who always created unusual situations. In this time warp, Carlos is split in two: one Carlos remembers and the other forgets the moments he spent with his father.
Oblivious Memory
2018
7.5A group of armed soldiers is sent to the Northeast of Brazil in an attempt to stop a famine-struck population from invading and stealing a food deposit in the dry backlands. While the alienation and insanity of people driven to hallucination by their latent hunger is conducted by the predictions of a religious figure, a truck driver observes the situation and remains torn between his friendship with the soldiers and his revolt against the lack of government action in fighting the misery that lingers over the region.
The Guns
1964
7.5A group of armed soldiers is sent to the Northeast of Brazil in an attempt to stop a famine-struck population from invading and stealing a food deposit in the dry backlands. While the alienation and insanity of people driven to hallucination by their latent hunger is conducted by the predictions of a religious figure, a truck driver observes the situation and remains torn between his friendship with the soldiers and his revolt against the lack of government action in fighting the misery that lingers over the region.
The Guns
1964
4.6This epic Brazilian film was based on the equally epic novel by Antonio Callado. Set between 1954 and 1964, the film's focus is the saga of Jesuit priest Nando. Fed up with civilization, he ventures deep into Amazon country to live with and work among the Xingu Indians.
Kuarup
1989
4.6This epic Brazilian film was based on the equally epic novel by Antonio Callado. Set between 1954 and 1964, the film's focus is the saga of Jesuit priest Nando. Fed up with civilization, he ventures deep into Amazon country to live with and work among the Xingu Indians.
Kuarup
1989
4.6This epic Brazilian film was based on the equally epic novel by Antonio Callado. Set between 1954 and 1964, the film's focus is the saga of Jesuit priest Nando. Fed up with civilization, he ventures deep into Amazon country to live with and work among the Xingu Indians.
Kuarup
1989
5.5One man, two lovers: Ana and Anna, living in identical apartments. Paranoia is the name of the game in this hallucinatory.
In Pieces
2025
5.5One man, two lovers: Ana and Anna, living in identical apartments. Paranoia is the name of the game in this hallucinatory.
In Pieces
2025
5.7The old servant and chronicler Dom Sabas tells how his desolate South American town is the scene of a ruthless power struggle. The landowning Assis family, reduced to a widow and son, tries to hold out against the young, despotic mayor. No less effective then actions are anonymous rumors and accusations, which often stir the inhabitants' moves.
In Evil Hour
2006
5.7The old servant and chronicler Dom Sabas tells how his desolate South American town is the scene of a ruthless power struggle. The landowning Assis family, reduced to a widow and son, tries to hold out against the young, despotic mayor. No less effective then actions are anonymous rumors and accusations, which often stir the inhabitants' moves.
In Evil Hour
2006
6.4After a restless night he is awoken by his doorbell insistently ringing. Through the peephole, he sees a stranger. He doesn't know why that man is there but is immediately certain of one thing: he represents a terrible threat. He quickly dresses and manages to sneak away, no doubt in his mind that the stranger is pursuing him, and that the nightmare has only just begun.
Turbulence
2000
6.4After a restless night he is awoken by his doorbell insistently ringing. Through the peephole, he sees a stranger. He doesn't know why that man is there but is immediately certain of one thing: he represents a terrible threat. He quickly dresses and manages to sneak away, no doubt in his mind that the stranger is pursuing him, and that the nightmare has only just begun.
Turbulence
2000
4.8Orestes, a rich factory owner, falls for the beautiful Fulvia. They communicate using pigeons, to avoid being discovered by her husband.
Fable of the Beautiful Pigeon-Fancier
1990
4.8Orestes, a rich factory owner, falls for the beautiful Fulvia. They communicate using pigeons, to avoid being discovered by her husband.
Fable of the Beautiful Pigeon-Fancier
1990
6.0The story of the CEO of a recently privatized company.
Portugal S.A.
2004
6.8An accident at a construction site, resulting in one death, sets one worker off on a struggle for justice that exposes the mechanisms of exploitation and the class relations of a country that had undergone one decade of fast-paced ‘conservative modernisation’ at the hands of the military. As a sort of sequel to the classic The Guns (1964), following the fate of those characters as they move from enforcers of exploitation to exploited, it offers more than a snapshot of the period: the correspondent time lapses in fiction and reality capture the passage of a chunk of Brazilian history between the two films, and, therefore, also the transformations in cinematographic approaches to the social and political between the two moments. Equally daring in content and form, and in the originality of the adequacy of one to the other, it won the Silver Bear at Berlin.
The Fall
1976
6.8An accident at a construction site, resulting in one death, sets one worker off on a struggle for justice that exposes the mechanisms of exploitation and the class relations of a country that had undergone one decade of fast-paced ‘conservative modernisation’ at the hands of the military. As a sort of sequel to the classic The Guns (1964), following the fate of those characters as they move from enforcers of exploitation to exploited, it offers more than a snapshot of the period: the correspondent time lapses in fiction and reality capture the passage of a chunk of Brazilian history between the two films, and, therefore, also the transformations in cinematographic approaches to the social and political between the two moments. Equally daring in content and form, and in the originality of the adequacy of one to the other, it won the Silver Bear at Berlin.
The Fall
1976
6.2Upon learning that his rich dad is on the brink of bankruptcy, spoiled Vavá summons his friend Jandir with a plan to get some quick cash: they will blackmail an uncle of Vavá by taking compromising photos of his lover, Leda.
The Unscrupulous Ones
1962
6.2Upon learning that his rich dad is on the brink of bankruptcy, spoiled Vavá summons his friend Jandir with a plan to get some quick cash: they will blackmail an uncle of Vavá by taking compromising photos of his lover, Leda.
The Unscrupulous Ones
1962
NRMário returned to the world of the dead. He dug his escape into the earth, with no intention of taking revenge on the powerful men who pursued him. "The Fury (2024)" starts from a fantastic premise, a poetic license, to conclude the trilogy begun by "The Guns (1964)" and "The Fall (1978)."
A Fúria
2026
NRMário returned to the world of the dead. He dug his escape into the earth, with no intention of taking revenge on the powerful men who pursued him. "The Fury (2024)" starts from a fantastic premise, a poetic license, to conclude the trilogy begun by "The Guns (1964)" and "The Fall (1978)."
A Fúria
2026
NRThe film deals with the judgment of the so-called "compromised", who integrated the colonial apparatus. At Josina Machel school, in an amphitheater with a full audience and balcony, there is a stage where Samora Machel and the members of the Frelimo political committee are located. He records Samora, an impeccable political actor, sometimes histrionic, in the role that he is attributed as the animator of the scene in the trial.
Os Comprometidos - Actas de um processo de descolonização
1984
7.0In Rio de Janeiro's bohemian district called Lapa, during the '40s, a stylish and popular scoundrel exploits a cabaret singer, and earns his living by means of petty swindles. But then he meets Ludmila, the cabaret owner's daughter, who wants to get rich smuggling goods in times of war.
Malandro
1986
7.0In Rio de Janeiro's bohemian district called Lapa, during the '40s, a stylish and popular scoundrel exploits a cabaret singer, and earns his living by means of petty swindles. But then he meets Ludmila, the cabaret owner's daughter, who wants to get rich smuggling goods in times of war.
Malandro
1986
7.0In Rio de Janeiro's bohemian district called Lapa, during the '40s, a stylish and popular scoundrel exploits a cabaret singer, and earns his living by means of petty swindles. But then he meets Ludmila, the cabaret owner's daughter, who wants to get rich smuggling goods in times of war.
Malandro
1986
7.0Mueda was a massacre. The name is that of the village in Northern Mozambique where in 1960 it took place. The Portuguese colonial regime did the killing. In independent Mozambique, those inhabitants of Mueda who survived regularly re-enact the massacre in situ. They themselves play the roles of victims, assassins, and spectators. Ruy Guerra, now a Brazilian but born in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo, the capital of Mozambique), filmed this extraordinary creation of liberated popular culture, intercutting it with first-hand interviews on the massacre. The mix is compelling, and the grave yet joyous spectacle unique.
Mueda, Memory and Massacre
1980
The interaction between a group of German soldiers and a group of prisoners. Based on a romance by Elio Vittorini.
Quand Le Soleil Dort
1954
6.5Rui Sequeira, a former fighter in the Colonial War, resident of a small village of Alentejo, celebrates another anniversary of the Carnation Revolution in the company of his wife and her daughter, the young Sara, with which he has a not so good relationship. On the night of the celebrations, the death of a friend forever alters his live, waking up a whole past long dormant.
Monsanto
2000
Ruy Guerra's adaptation for French television of Edgar Allan Poe's short story.
La Lettre Volèe
1981
A Mozambican delegation asks the Portuguese provincial administrator for independence. He agrees to consider their demands in a public square where a crowd is gathering. However, the petition is soon rejected, sparking a protest. A reconstruction of historical events, a documentary, a political manifesto, a performance—all these diverse forms are woven into the fabric of the film Mueda, also known as Mueda, Memorial of a Massacre (or Mueda, Memories of a Bloody War). It was directed by Ruy Guerra, who was born in Mozambique but became one of the most prominent filmmakers of Brazil’s "Cinema Novo." Mueda is the first feature-length fiction film of independent Mozambique. It presents a recording of a theatrical play staged in the northern town of Mueda—a reconstruction of the massacre committed by Portuguese troops on June 16, 1960. This massacre is widely considered the catalyst for the anti-colonial struggle in Mozambique.
Mueda
—




