Prime Video has released a teaser and first-look images for “Animal Race”, an action thriller that premiered at SXSW, a movie festival in Texas.
It marks the platform’s first Latin American title to debut at the event.
Produced by O2 Filmes, the film reflects a broader push to position Brazilian content within the global streaming market.
Set in a futuristic Rio de Janeiro, the narrative explores a city reshaped by environmental disruption, where rising sea levels have altered the urban landscape and contributed to the emergence of parallel systems of control.
Within this context, the film introduces the “Animal Race,” a violent competition in which participants are forced to compete for survival, controlled by an elite audience.
The story follows Mano, played by Matheus Abreu, who leads a resistance group opposing the system. His involvement escalates when his sister, portrayed by Thainá Duarte, is forced into the game, prompting him to enter the competition.
The film’s concept draws directly from “jogo do bicho” (“animal game”), an informal lottery created in the late 19th century in Brazil, where players bet on numbers associated with animals.
Despite its cultural relevance and widespread popularity, the activity has never been legalized and operates outside the formal regulatory framework.
Over time, it has become linked to organized crime structures and informal financial networks, while remaining part of everyday betting behavior across parts of the country.
In “Animal Race”, this system is reinterpreted as a physical competition, with each animal represented by a runner in a high-risk race.
Jogo do bicho originated in 1892 in Rio de Janeiro, conceived by the founder of the Vila Isabel Zoo, and it was created as a raffle to increase the number of visitors and save the zoo from financial difficulties
