Other notable or post-Cinema Novo films

Yes. A brothel. As a teenager.

No discussion of Love Strange Love is complete without acknowledging its legendary controversy. For decades, the film was suppressed, and the reason centers on Xuxa. After becoming a beloved children's TV host, she was repeatedly attacked for her participation in the film, leading her to take legal action to remove it from circulation for almost 30 years.

Set in 1937 Brazil against a backdrop of political upheaval, the story follows Hugo, a 12-year-old boy sent by his grandmother to live with his mother, Anna (Vera Fischer), in a luxurious brothel. The film is framed as a memory by an adult Hugo, now a senior politician, returning to the abandoned mansion 45 years later.

More than 40 years after its release, Amor Estranho Amor refuses to fade away. It is a film that challenges, disturbs, and hypnotizes in equal measure. The has taken on a second life as a cult artifact—a bridge between the golden age of Brazilian cinema and the weird world of international VHS trading.

Amor Estranho Amor (also known as Love Strange Love ), released in 1982, is a Brazilian erotic drama directed by Walter Hugo Khouri. It follows the journey of Hugo, a young boy sent to live with his mother in a high-class bordello during the political turmoil of 1930s Brazil.

The film is lush, melancholic, and dripping with sweat and cigarette smoke. It’s shot in that dreamy, soft-focus 80s aesthetic where every shadow feels like a secret. But the reason this film has achieved cult notoriety isn’t just the cinematography—it’s the uncomfortable, poetic tension between a young boy (Marcelo Ribeiro) and the women who “raise” him.

Amor Estranho Amor ( Love Strange Love ) is not a movie you "enjoy." It is a movie you survive . But the English dubbed version? That is a piece of cinematic anthropology. It captures a moment when Brazilian art house collided with American B-movie distribution, creating a mutant hybrid that is sleazy, sad, beautiful, and utterly unforgettable.

The 1982 Brazilian film Amor Estranho Amor (English title: Love Strange Love ) is an erotic crime drama written and directed by Walter Hugo Khouri

However, to discuss Amor Estranho Amor honestly, one must address the elephant in the room: the sexualization of a child actor. Even within the context of 1982—a time when Brazil was under a censorship-heavy military regime that paradoxically allowed such films to pass as “artistic”—the film’s lingering gaze on Hugo’s body and his gradual seduction is deeply troubling. Modern audiences will recoil, and rightly so. The “awesome” label some cult fans attach to the movie is less an endorsement of its ethics and more a recognition of its audacity. The film dares to ask a horrifying question: What happens when the institutions meant to protect (family, government, economy) are merely different faces of the same predatory system? The brothel in the film is a metaphor for the Estado Novo (New State) dictatorship—a gilded cage where everyone is either a client or a commodity.

To understand the narrative weight of Amor Estranho Amor , one must look at the setting. The film takes place in 1937, right on the eve of the Estado Novo —a period of authoritarian dictatorship led by President Getúlio Vargas.

The set design—a sprawling house filled with velvet, mirrors, and shadows—creates a claustrophobic yet dreamlike atmosphere. The English dub adds to this surreal quality. While dubs often distance the viewer from the actor's performance, the somewhat detached, breathy voice acting in the English version oddly complements the film’s theme of memory and alienation.

The brothel serves as a microcosm of Brazilian high society at the time, frequented by corrupt politicians, wealthy aristocrats, and influential military figures. Within this environment, Hugo is prematurely exposed to the complexities, vices, and desires of the adult world. The narrative primarily focuses on his relationships with the women in the house, navigating themes of Oedipal attachment, vulnerability, and the abrupt end of childhood innocence.