Lisbela and the Prisoner

Lisbela and the Prisoner is a Brazilian comedy set in the countryside, where a travelling trickster named Leléu makes his living selling odds and ends and hosting cheap variety acts. His latest romance is with Inaura, the wife of the area's most feared hired gun. When the husband discovers the affair, Leléu flees, and in another town he falls for Lisbela, a young woman who loves the cinema but is engaged to Douglas, a country type trying to pass as a sophisticated Rio de Janeiro man.

The film is directed by Guel Arraes, his second feature, following A Dog's Will in 2000 and preceding Romance in 2008; later films in his filmography are Great Sertão and The Rogue's Trial, both from 2024. Arraes wrote the screenplay with Pedro Cardoso and Jorge Furtado, and Paula Lavigne produced. Selton Mello plays Leléu and Débora Falabella plays Lisbela, with Virginia Cavendish as Inaura and Bruno Garcia as Douglas, alongside Tadeu Mello and André Mattos.

Released in August 2003, the film runs 106 minutes. On IMDb it holds a 7.6 rating from around 7,900 votes, and on TMDB it has a 7.8 from roughly 409 votes. The two audience scores sit close together, indicating a consistently positive response across both.