All-consuming passion is the key to this steamy ménage à trois, set in Brazil's Salvador da Bahia. In his debut feature, director Sergio Machado and cinematographer Toca Seabra present a sobering picture of a dispossessed underclass - capturing the hustle and bustle of the impoverished waterfront shanties. But while free-spirited hooker Alice Braga's liaisons with best buddies Lazaro Ramos and Wagner Moura generate plenty of sparks, there's too little social or psychological depth to their story. Consequently, Moura's stabbing at a cockfight, Braga's routine at a lap-dancing dive and Ramos's rigged boxing bout feel less like life than calculated narrative ploys squeezed in between the intense couplings. This is highly cinematic, and there are obvious parallels with Jules et Jim, but as a human drama it lacks resonance.

Best friends Deco and Naldinho co-own a cargo boat in Brazil's Salvador da Bahia. They give a ride to a sultry prostitute named Karinna, and soon both men fall prey to her considerable sexual charms, pushing the bounds of their friendship to the limit.