Sightlines · reception

How Foreign Land was received

1996 · Walter Salles · Foreign Land on Sightlines

The arc

In 1995 it landed as the film that announced the 'Retomada' — the rebirth of Brazilian cinema after the Collor government gutted the industry — but it barely traveled abroad. Since I'm Still Here (2024) sent everyone back through the Salles–Fernanda Torres back catalog, it's being rediscovered internationally as the place their story starts.

What’s debated

The perennial cinephile take: this, not Central Station, is secretly Walter Salles's best film.

Its footprint

The image of the two leads embracing on the beach beneath a huge beached shipwreck is one of the most iconic frames in Brazilian cinema — endlessly reproduced on posters, retrospectives and Letterboxd backdrops.

Where it stands

A cornerstone of 1990s Brazilian cinema and a 'you must see this' for anyone arriving via Fernanda Torres or I'm Still Here.

Did you know? It was Walter Salles's first film with Fernanda Torres — nearly three decades before he directed her again in the Oscar-winning I'm Still Here (2024).

Named by the director

• Alice in the Cities (1974) — Salles cited Wenders writing each night what would be shot the next day, saying Foreign Land was made with the same immediacy.
• Wim Wenders — Salles has repeatedly described early Wenders as the model for the film's urgency and improvisation.