Death haunts a man whose life has taken a number of unfortunate turns in this offbeat drama from filmmaker Suzana Amaral. An out of work actor (Julio Andrade), best known for his work on a once-popular soap opera, drifts from one part of Brazil to another, occasionally stopping to chat with the people he meets along the way. However, the actor appears either to be cursed or he has remarkably bad luck, as the people he encounters often meet an unpleasant end; his new acquaintances suddenly kill themselves, are shot by gangsters or fall victim to auto accidents, while the actor himself has more than a few brushes with death, as he hitches a ride with a pair of angry gunmen and encounters a surgeon with a faulty grip on reality. Adapted from the acclaimed novel by Joao Gilberto Noll, Hotel Atlantico was an official selection at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi