Directed by Karim Aïnouz • 2024 • Brazil, France, Germany
Starring Iago Xavier, Nataly Rocha, Fábio Assunção

The neon-hued Motel Destino, a roadside sex hotel steaming under the burning blue skies of the northeastern coast of Brazil, is run by hotheaded Elias (Fábio Assunção) and his restless younger wife Dayana (Nataly Rocha). The unexpected arrival of twenty-one-year-old Heraldo (Iago Xavier), on the run after a botched hit, disrupts the established order. As this feverish tropical noir—a ravishingly shot blend of high-art stylization and lurid pulp with the hothouse eroticism dialed up to sweltering—plays out, loyalties and desires intertwine to reveal that destiny has its own enigmatic design.