One of the most important films of Brazil’s Cinema Nôvo movement, Vidas Secas was directed by Nelson Pereira dos Santos, and based on the 1938 novel of the same name written by Graciliano Ramos. It tells the story of a poverty-stricken family in the sertão—the dry Brazilian northeast lands—in the 1940s. Shot in a modernist style reminiscent of Italian neorealist film, Vidas Secas is characterized by telling compositions, subjective shots, atomized, overexposed lighting, and sparse dialogue.