Lower City

Lower City (Cidade Baixa, 2005) is a Brazilian drama from Sérgio Machado you can watch online on iFILM. Deco and Naldinho have been inseparable since childhood; they co-own a cargo boat and share everything in the port city of Salvador da Bahia — until a dancer named Karinna climbs aboard.

Alice Braga plays a woman who refuses to pick between the two friends and simply lives alongside both. Lázaro Ramos and Wagner Moura are the men whose bond starts to splinter under jealousy. In this part of town arguments get settled with a blade, and you can feel where the story is heading long before it gets there. Heat, sweat, cheap bars, sex, and a slow build of resentment.

The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, two years before Moura broke out internationally. It's raw, physical work about how desire can rot a friendship from the inside. Stream Lower City (2005) online on iFILM.