The movie "Animal Race" on Prime Video boosts the story of the game in cinema.
Released this Wednesday (August 7th) on Prime Video, the film "Animal Race" transformed the jogo do bicho (a Brazilian lottery game) into a futuristic dystopia and quickly became the most-watched non-English language title on the platform worldwide. This milestone was reached in the first week after its release, a result that highlighted the production co-directed by Fernando Meirelles, director of "City of God".
The film's trajectory revisits a relationship that Brazilian audiovisual media has maintained with the world of illegal gambling for over 70 years. Since 1952, films, soap operas, series, and documentaries have explored the jogo do bicho (illegal lottery) as a central theme, constructing over the decades a portrait that ranges from the underworld of Rio de Janeiro to the spheres of power.
According to historian and writer Luiz Antônio Simas, author of "Maldito Invento dum Baronete: Uma Breve História do Jogo do Bicho" (Damned Invention of a Baron: A Brief History of the Animal Game), the public's fascination with this universe has deep roots. "The animal game interacts with the bar, the street corner, the world of samba and Carnival. But it also interacts with violence, security, and the relationships between public and private power," he told G1.
Seven decades on screen
The mapping of these productions, carried out by G1, gathered 20 titles released between 1952 and 2026. The list begins with "Amei um Bicheiro" (1952), a film in which a young man from the countryside gets involved with the illegal lottery in Rio de Janeiro and decides to change his life after a stint in jail. In 1963, "Boca de Ouro," directed by Nelson Pereira dos Santos, featured Jece Valadão as the head of the illegal lottery in Madureira; the character received a new version in 2019, with Marcos Palmeira in the lead role and directed by Daniel Filho.
On television, the theme arrived on TV Globo in 1971 with the soap opera "Bandeira 2," which explored the underworld of Rio de Janeiro's illegal gambling bosses in 179 episodes. The network would return to the subject in productions such as "Mandala" (1987), an 20 pm soap opera in which Nuno Leal Maia played the gambling boss Tony Carrado, a character described by the narrative as feared in the illegal gambling world and dominated by his passion for the protagonist played by Vera Fischer.
The most iconic gambling boss in Brazilian television history emerged in 2004 in "Senhora do Destino"; Giovanni Improtta, played by José Wilker and created by Aguinaldo Silva from a literary character. His popularity grew so much that the racketeer migrated to film in 2013 and gave his name to a TV Globo series in 2011, "Lara com Z," in which Othon Bastos played Agenor Improtta, the famous gambling boss's cousin.
Documentaries and streaming
Starting in the 2020s, the documentary format gained prominence in the survey. In 2021, Globoplay released "Doutor Castor," a four-episode series about Castor de Andrade, a gambling boss linked to crimes in Rio de Janeiro between the 1980s and 1990s and responsible for the growth of Bangu in football and Mocidade Independente de Padre Miguel in Carnival. The following year, Prime Video brought "Lei da Selva," also in four episodes, which narrated how the jogo do bicho (illegal lottery) went from a lottery created to finance a zoo to a large criminal empire.
In 2023, Globoplay aired "Vale o Escrito," a documentary series about the genealogy and power struggles between the main illegal gambling families in Rio de Janeiro. The production even served as a research source for actress Isabel Teixeira, who used it as a study to portray the character Violeta, the widow of a gambling boss, in the telenovela "Volta por Cima" (TV Globo, 2024). In 2025, Netflix entered the theme with "Os Donos do Jogo," a thriller about the dispute for control of the illegal gambling business between four families, identified as Guerra, Moraes, Fernandez, and Saad.
“Corrida dos Bichos” (Animal Race), the most recent title on the list, is set in a futuristic Rio de Janeiro where the jogo do bicho (animal lottery) has evolved into a high-tech parkour competition with million-dollar bets; in the plot, the animals are embodied by people forced to run in a deadly race for a million-dollar prize.
