The highly acclaimed Brazilian director and screenwriter Heitor Dalia takes us back to the 1980s, when two friends, Juliano and Joaquim, decide to leave São Paulo to seek out a better future. They fall under the spell of the gold rush that rages in Brazil at this time—a dream that’s supposed to take them from rags to riches overnight. Like hundreds of thousands of other men, Juliano and Joaquim travel to the heart of the Amazon jungle in search of great wealth. The obsession with getting rich fast and the lust for power connected with it will change their lives forever, and redefine their relationship. The titular Serra Pelada is one of the biggest gold mines in the world, so in Dhalia’s movie the stakes are enormous. Greed mixes with violence, just as the captivating drama mixes with elements taken from Westerns. The icing on the cake is the appearance in a supporting role of the famous Brazilian actor Wagner Moura, who went on to play Pablo Escobar in Netflix’s hit production Narcos.