Just released from prison, Léa (Léa Alves Silva) returns home to the Brasilia favela of Sol Nascente and joins up with her half-sister Chitara (Joana Darc Furtado), the fearless leader of an all-female gang that steals and refines oil from underground pipes and sells gasoline to a clandestine network of motorcyclists. Living in constant opposition to Jair Bolsonaro’s fiercely authoritarian and militarized government, Chitara’s women claim the streets for themselves as a declaration of radical political resistance on behalf of ex-cons and the oppressed. An electrifying portrait of Brazil’s dystopian contemporary moment that blends documentary with narrative fiction and genre elements, Dry Ground Burning reunites filmmakers Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós (Once There Was Brasilia) to offer a unique vision of the country’s possible future.

With support from community partner The African Diaspora International Film Festival

“The incendiary power of DRY GROUND BURNING, a feminist gangster movie from Brazil… Sodium-lit nightscapes filled with steely, gun-toting dames recall the glossy crime dramas of Michael Mann (HEAT)… I’m compelled to draw a connection between DRY GROUND BURNING and MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, two pyromaniacal dystopian westerns in which lawless women are not only their own saviors but everyone else’s, too. Critic’s Pick!” — Beatrice Loayza, The New York Times

“An astonishing work of survival and resilience… packs a pulpy punch, yet is also rooted in an urgent political reality.” — Phuong Le, The Guardian

“A furious, queer, boisterous gangster epic that offers a view of the country from the outskirts and turns oppression into resistance.”— Leonardo Goi, The Film Stage

“A meticulous blend of fact and fiction… layered with suggestions of Westerns, gangster films, and even science fiction, all rooted in the real contemporary.”—Hyperallergic