What to read, watch, and listen to if you lovedBacurau
Kleber Mendonça Filho · Film · 2019
If you loved Bacurau, start with Mystery Road (2018) — a series on the same thread. Below: 4 books, 3 series and 2 podcasts, each matched to Bacurau across media.
What hooked you in Bacurau was the way small, isolated communities fiercely defend their sovereignty against encroaching external threats.
Books on the same thread
Blindness
José Saramago · Book · 1999
Explores: Social Breakdown, Loss of Sight, Humanity in Crisis.
Like the residents of Bacurau, the characters in Blindness face a total collapse of societal structures, forcing them to forge new, desperate methods of survival against an oppressive system.
Brotherhood
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr · Book · 2021
Explores: tyranny, grief, resistance.
If you valued the collective resistance shown in Bacurau, you will appreciate how this story explores the quiet, dangerous defiance of individuals standing against a crushing, authoritarian regime.
2666
Roberto Bolaño · Book · 2024
Explores: femicide, systemic corruption, elusive authorship.
Much like the unsettling atmosphere of Bacurau, this narrative exposes the violent, systemic rot hidden within isolated regions, where the law fails to protect the vulnerable from exploitation.
I the Supreme
Augusto Roa Bastos · Book · 2019
Explores: Truth and Power, Dictatorship, Historical Memory.
Bacurau masterfully depicts the weight of history, a theme mirrored here as the protagonist grapples with the lingering, suffocating power of a dictator and the corruption of truth.
Series on the same thread
Mystery Road
Series · 2018
Explores: Indigenous Issues, Racial Tension, Small Town Secrets.
This series captures the same rural tension found in Bacurau, focusing on a small, isolated community where deep-seated racial injustice and hidden secrets dictate the struggle for survival.
FROM
John Griffin · Series · 2022
Explores: Trapped in a mysterious town, Monsters in the woods, Survival horror.
The residents trapped in this nightmare town mirror the citizens of Bacurau, as both groups must unify to survive a predatory, external force that threatens their very existence.
Brazil Avenue
João Emanuel Carneiro · Series · 2012
Shares a thread with Bacurau: Social Inequality.
If the social inequality and fierce quest for justice in Bacurau resonated with you, this drama offers a similarly intense exploration of ambition and retribution within a stratified society.
Podcasts on the same thread
Small Town Murder
James Pietragallo, Jimmie Whisman · Podcast · 2026
Explores: provincial life, tragic irony, forensic breakdown.
This podcast examines the dark realities of provincial life with the same sociological curiosity present in Bacurau, dissecting how specific environments cultivate both tragedy and local resilience.
Barrio Bravo
Podcast
Explores: DIY, Making things up as you go, Creative Process.
While less dark than Bacurau, this podcast captures the raw, DIY spirit of community-driven creation, reflecting the same independent energy that defines the people of the sertão.
Keep exploring
Common questions
Is Bacurau set in a real location?
Bacurau is set in the Brazilian sertão, a semi-arid region in the country's interior. The film depicts a fictional small town that becomes isolated from the world after the inhabitants notice their community has vanished from digital and physical maps following the death of their matriarch, Carmelita.
What happens to the town in Bacurau?
Following the death of the ninety-four-year-old matriarch Carmelita, the residents of Bacurau discover that their community has been erased from most maps. This disappearance triggers a series of mysterious events that force the inhabitants to confront external threats while protecting their home in the Brazilian sertão.
How long is the runtime of Bacurau?
Bacurau is a 2019 feature film directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho. The story follows the residents of a small town in the Brazilian sertão as they deal with the loss of their matriarch and the sudden, unsettling realization that their community no longer appears on any maps.
Is Bacurau a story about a specific community?
Yes, Bacurau centers on a small, tight-knit community located in the Brazilian sertão. The narrative begins as the town mourns the death of Carmelita, a matriarch who lived to be ninety-four, before shifting focus to the town's strange and unexplained disappearance from maps.