Motel Destino

Brazilian auteur Karim Aïnouz (Invisible Life) orchestrates a sweaty, steamy, and illicit love triangle at a sleazy sex motel on the northeastern coastal region of Ceará.

After botching a hit and going off the grid, 21-year-old Heraldo (newcomer Iago Xavier) lands at the Motel Destino, where he becomes dangerously entangled with the owner's wife Dayana (Nataly Rocha). No other film at last year’s Cannes Film Festival turned the heat up quite as high as Motel Destino (though a few certainly tried). Taking inspiration from Lawrence Kasdan’s Body Heat, Aïnouz anchors his fatalistic tropical noir with a sizzling debut performance from Xavier, who beat out nearly 500 actors for the part.