| Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures | |
| Director: | Marcelo Gomes |
| Producer: | Karim Aïnouz |
| Starring: | João Miguel Peter Ketnath |
| Cinematography: | Mauro Pinheiro Jr. |
| Editing: | Karen Harley |
| Music: | Tomás Alves de Souza |
| Studio: | Rec Produtores Associados |
| Distributor: | Imovision |
| Runtime: | 99 minutes |
| Country: | Brazil |
| Language: | Portuguese |
| Budget: | R$2.1 million[1] |
| Gross: | R$882,373[2] |
Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures (Portuguese: '''Cinema, Aspirinas e Urubus''') is a 2005 Brazilian film directed and co-written by Marcelo Gomes. It was Brazil's submission to the 79th Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee.[3] [4] It was also screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.[5]
In 2015, the Brazilian Film Critics Association aka Abraccine voted Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures the 75th greatest Brazilian film of all time, in its list of the 100 best Brazilian films.[6]
German national Johann is traveling in rural northern Brazil in the 1940s, selling the new drug aspirin by screening a short promotional film for isolated villagers, many of whom have never seen a motion picture. He meets drifter Ranulpho, who agrees to work for Johann in exchange for a ride to Rio de Janeiro. They have many encounters and misadventures on their journey, eventually selling out Johann's entire stock of aspirin to a wealthy brothel owner.
When Brazil formally declares war on Germany in August, 1942, Johann is ordered to either return to his homeland or turn himself into a Brazilian concentration camp until the end of hostilities. Not wishing to participate in the European war, Johann paints over the advertising logos on the company truck, splits the sales money with Ranulpho, and smuggles himself onto a train with other workers who are supporting the Brazilian-American alliance by working on rubber plantations in the Amazonian jungle.
Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures has an approval rating of 86% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 7 reviews, and an average rating of 6.8/10.[7]