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A young man who refuses to spend the turn of the centu­ry behind bars will have to murder his best friend in order to gain his freedom. A young woman, suddenly deserted by her lover, contemplates suicide. They find one anoth­er at midnight on the roof of a building overlooking Copacabana Beach. Stuck between heaven and hell, the pair refuse to submit to an established social order.

This second superb collaboration between director Waller Salles and screenwriter Daniela Thomas (after 1995's Foreign Land) was selected for the Toronto, Pusan and Locarno Film Festivals. Like Salles' epic road movie, Central Station (1997), Midnight deals with hope and sacrifice in modem Brazil. Breathtaking beauty and crushing poverty are juxtaposed as a backdrop for a dynamic and intensely romantic love story.