O Auto da Boa Mentira

O Auto da Boa Mentira stitches together four comic episodes that spring from short stories and memorable lines by Ariano Suassuna. Each segment follows different characters who lean on falsehoods to get what they want, and those fibs lead to awkward, funny, and sometimes sharp consequences. We meet Helder, a showy trickster; Fabiano, a dubious seer; and other figures whose small deceptions ripple into larger misunderstandings. The film keeps the mood light but pointed, using satire and regional humor to show how lying can be performance, protection, or social currency, without revealing how any story ends.

Released in 2021, the movie was directed by José Eduardo Belmonte and developed from material by João Falcão, Tatiana Maciel and Célio Porto, with clear inspiration taken from phrases and tales by Ariano Suassuna.

No widely reported box office totals are available, the film had a limited commercial footprint and reached audiences mainly through Brazilian theatrical windows and festival screenings.

Critics gave mixed responses, reflected in a modest audience score around 5.6/10. Reviews often praised the cast energy and comic setups while noting uneven tonal shifts; recurring themes include the theater of deception, fame as performance, and the social costs of pretending.

The movie draws on northeastern Brazilian culture and Suassuna's theatrical sensibility, so it feels familiar to viewers who know his work. Its use of local idioms, stock characters and folkloric wit offers nods that theatergoers and fans of regional literature will recognize, even if the film didn't become a mainstream cultural phenomenon.