Tony Ramos Movies

A writer turned insurance investigator follows an ominous trail in this thriller from Brazilian director Flavoria R. Tambellini. Ivan Canabrava's (Jose Mayer) specialty as an insurance investigator is cases in which the perpetrators have used Bufo Marinus to commit fraud. A poison secreted by frogs that induces catalepsy in humans, the chemical's uncanny ability to bring about death-like symptoms allows the user to collect large life insurance policies and commit numerous other crimes. Subsequently giving up his career and focusing on writing, a decade later Canabrava discovers what appears to be a resurgence of the once popular drug and subsequently embarks on an investigation that may place his life in grave danger. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Every country no doubt has its golden youths who die before they have had a chance to come to full flower and who leave a romantic legend behind them. In the U.S., one of these was James Dean. In Brazil, the fans of the actress Leila Diniz were similarly bereft when she died in the late 1960s. This biographical drama, directed and written by one of her close friends, and produced by a relative, tells the story of a very modern woman who broke new social ground in the conservative society of Brazil. Many of the people involved with the unconventional actress in real life play themselves in this film. The mood of the times are evoked: it was an era when a repressive military dictatorship governed the country, but the ideas and styles of beat poetry and aspirations for social change were fermenting among the young. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi