Hawaii International Film Festival 2009

Young De lives alone with his mother Bernadete. He belongs to this invisible class, working as a hot dog vendor at one of the stalls in Ipanema. His brother Beto was killed when he was a child, and his adopted brother Carlao is in jail after being wrongly accused of a robbery - a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time in a racist society. One day at the beach, De meets Nina, the only child of a lawyer, Evandro. They fall in love, despite coming from vastly different communities. Unfolding like a fairy tale, Once Upon a Time in Rio is a tragic love story set in a city divided by economic privilege and prejudice. Through De and Nina's tale, Silveira explores the absurdity of a society in which people live in close proximity yet stand worlds apart.