Mango Yellow (Amarelo Manga)

Guaranteed to shock even jaded viewers, Claudio Assis' debut feature is seeped in bold, sun-drenched colors. It is a provocative tale of low-rent losers set in the coastal town of Recife, Brazil. Assis' characters seemingly stem from some Carnival hell - a macho butcher and his born-again wife, a forlorn barmaid, a sinister sadist and the gay manager of a flophouse called the Hotel Texas. A cleverly interconnected script propels the action in this highly original film with its perfect confluence between style and story.