Araby begins by observing the day-to-day of Andre, a teenager who lives in an industrial area in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. After a local factory worker, Cristiano, has an accident on the job, he leaves behind a handwritten journal, which the boy proceeds to read with relish. The film shifts into road-movie mode to recount the story of Cristiano, an ex-con and eternal optimist who journeys across Brazil in search of work, enduring no shortage of economic hardship but gaining an equal amount of self-knowledge. Invigorating and ever surprising, Araby is a humanist work of remarkable poise and maturity. A 2017 New Directors/New Films selection. A Grasshopper Film release.

Special thanks to our community partner, the Consulate General of Brazil in New York.

Watch the directors discuss Araby at New Directors/New Films 2017: