Movies Similar to A Santa Joana dos Matadouros

Reinventing Marvin(2017)

Telling the true story of Marvin Bijou, a young boy from a working-class family in a small village, who suffers constant bullying at school and home for being ‘different’ – too sensitive and too feminine. A chance encounter with a drama teacher opens the doors to a world that offers him the chance to escape his situation.

The Critic(2024)

Jimmy Erskine is the most feared theatre critic of the age. He lives as flamboyantly as he writes and takes pleasure in savagely taking down any actor who fails to meet his standards. When the owner of the Daily Chronicle dies, and his son takes over, Jimmy quickly finds himself at odds with his new boss and his position under threat. In an attempt to preserve the power and influence he holds so sacred, Jimmy strikes a Faustian pact with a struggling actress, entangling them and the boss in a thrilling but deadly web of desire, blackmail, and betrayal.

By Fire(2023)

Anya is a wide-eyed uncorrupted understudy who has to replace the actress she idealises in the role of Medea, as she navigates within a morally distorted theatre company.

Ice Cream and the Sound of Raindrops(2018)

In March, 2017, at a small town, six boys and girls are selected through auditions. They work hard to prepare for a play, but the play is suddenly cancelled. These young people are disappointed at the news. One girl says "let's practice." The six boys and girls want to stand on stage no matter what.

Lost Illusions(2021)

Lucien de Rubempré, a young, lower-class poet, leaves his family's printing house for Paris. Soon, he learns the dark side of the arts business as he tries to stay true to his dreams.

Chuck & Buck(2000)

Chuck and Buck are childhood best friends whose lives have taken very different paths. While Chuck moved away and now has a real life, Buck stayed behind and developed a dangerous fixation—on Chuck's life.

Investigations of a Breakup(2025)

Sophia struggles with overthinking her life as a poor, nihilistic drifter. Exiled to a life of solitude, she has the chance to change it all upon meeting Liza one night... Did she let her in or was she destined to burn it all? The aftermath of their breakup is explored through three different angles.

National Theatre Live: Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?(2017)

In the early hours of the morning on the campus of an American college, Martha, much to her husband George’s displeasure, has invited the new professor and his wife to their home for some after-party drinks. As the alcohol flows and dawn approaches, the young couple are drawn into George and Martha’s toxic games until the evening reaches its climax in a moment of devastating truth-telling.

National Theatre Live: Vanya(2024)

Andrew Scott brings multiple characters to life in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, filmed live in West End, London. Hopes, dreams, and regrets are thrust into sharp focus in this one-man adaptation which explores the complexities of human emotions.

Ghostlight(2024)

When a construction worker unexpectedly joins a local theater's production of Romeo and Juliet alongside his estranged teenage daughter, the drama onstage starts to mirror his own life.

Edipo Re(1977)

The Green Carriage(1967)

Inspired by the life of Varvara Asenkova, a 19th-century actress who earned great acclaim on St. Petersburg stage before her death at the age of 24.

Brenda Lee and the Palace of Princesses(2021)

A musical that brings a bit of the history of Brenda Lee, called the "guardian angel of transsexuals", activist who founded the first support house for people with HIV/AIDS in Brazil. She has a pension for trans women who, for the most part, live off prostitution. Despite the reality of violence in which they live, inside the house, the transsexuals are welcomed by Brenda, who teaches them to want more out of life.

Bom Dia Sem Companhia(2023)

Vini and Lara are two former child presenters who are invited to revive their old program in a special that will be recorded live 10 years after the end of the show. Between good and bad memories, joys and frustrations, they remember the times when they were loved by the entire country and face the marks that success left on each one's history and on their friendship.

The Dependent Variables(2022)

In a dark, velvety theatre, there is a first kiss between Pietro and Tommaso. When the lights come back on, however, the two students have different expectations of what might follow. The chaos of awakening desire in its complexity and sensuality is told and made almost physically tangible through looks and gestures, approach and retreat, hope and fear.

National Theatre Live: The Other Place(2025)

Two sisters reunite on the anniversary of the death of their father. Their uncle has remodelled their family home, in an attempt at a fresh start. But one sister’s sudden reappearance threatens to shatter this fragile idyll as she demands justice for the pain she carries.Amid the debris and the new extension, guilt, grief and greed battle it out in the family’s competing dreams of their future. When we are faced with the suffering of others, even those closest to us, can we look away?

Lili Elbe(2023)

The painter Lili Elbe was the first person to have gender confirmation surgery in the 1930s. The homonymous opera is a glimpse into the life of Lili Elbe and her wife Gerda Wegener (also a famous painter) through Lili's transition at a time when such surgery was still completely uncharted territory.

No. 18: Mahagonny(1980)

Harry Smith’s final film; an epic four-screen projection. Smith worked on this cinematic transformation of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (1929) for over ten years and considered it his magnum opus. The film was shot from 1970 to 1972 and edited for the next eight years. The “program” of the film is meticulous, with a complex structure and order. The Weill opera is transformed into a numerological and symbolic system. Images in the film are divided into categories— portraits, animation, symbols and nature— to form the palindrome P.A.S.A.N.A.S.A.P. The film contains invaluable cameos of important avant-garde figures such as Allen Ginsberg, Patti Smith, and Jonas Mekas, intercut with installation pieces from Robert Mapplethorpe’s studio, New York City landmarks of the era, and Smith’s visionary animation.

Julius Caesar(1994)

A compelling study of personal ambition versus the good of the state.

The Reconstruction(1970)

A magistrate reconstructs the murder of Costas Ghoussis, a labourer who was killed by his wife and her lover.