Seventeen-year-old Jean is growing up in the elite district of Rio de Janeiro, with its private schools, drivers and housekeepers. While he tries to transcend the limitations of his upper-middle-class life, and escape from his overprotective parents, they keep their approaching bankruptcy secret.
Brazilian writer-director Fellipe Barbosa came to international attention for this, his stirring and socially-conscious debut feature. Both a coming-of-age drama, and a reworking of the telenovela genre, Casa Grande confidently confronts issues of race and class in 21st-century Rio de Janeiro.