Onda Nova Review: Lively Brazilian Cult Film

A Brazilian women’s football team is formed in Onda Nova, the restored cult film that remains transgressive, lively and full of unbridled desire.

That was likely the main reason for Onda Nova initially being banned in Brazil for a year, hurting its chances at success. Now though, the film arrives at BFI Flare with a new 4K restoration, allowing new audiences to experience a wild comedy that remains rather transgressive.

Onda Nova is all about Gayvotas, a newly formed women’s football team in the city of Sao Paulo. By merely existing and training, the team is showing defiance against a society that banned women from playing football until 1983. And the film follows the different stories of these women as they battle societal prejudices and personal problems. One player, Rita (Carla Camurati), is also an actress trying to find a place to live with her boyfriend. Another, goalkeeper Lili (Cristina Mutarelli), hides her participation in the team from her parents. She also has a boyfriend, although he has a male friend who follows them all the time.

New team members are welcomed and established players become intimate with one another. There are moments of self-discovery and moments of personal betrayal. It all builds to a pivotal match that will pit Gayvotas against the Italians.It seems unimaginable that Brazil – a country that has adored football/soccer for decades – had prohibited the sport for women until the year of Onda Nova’s initial release. To be clear, bans like this happened across the world (Britain had a similar one for women footballers until 1971), but in this case, it signifies the oppression that Gayvotas have to fight against to play. The forces who threaten to ban them from using facilities because of “unacceptable things”, or a complaint from Lili’s mother that she has been masculinised by the sport.

However, since Gayvotas playing football is a rebellious act in itself, Garcia and Martins can use the sport as the background for even more rebellious acts, especially considering this point in Brazilian history. There are scenes of characters smoking marijuana. A character has to get an abortion at one point. And there are sexual liberation and fluidity, with several explicit sex scenes interspersed throughout the film, including gay and lesbian sex scenes.

This may put the film in line with the ‘pornochanchada’ sex comedies that had been produced in Brazil since the 1960s and were starting to decline in popularity, but Onda Nova is a lot more than that. It represents a cinema of desire (which is also the translated name of a wider project restoring Garcia’s other films). DP Antonio Meliande shoots in an intimate style that gazes at all forms of bodies. All of this is unabashedly erotic but more importantly, it is unabashed freedom from the women of Gayvotas. Their country had tried to control them for so long

Onda Nova is a film that is very specific to Brazil in the 1980s. There are cameos not only from Brazilian footballers like Casagrande and Wladimir – who support Gayvotas’ mission – but also the composer Caetano Veloso. It does mean the film may not translate completely to all audiences, but it gives certain parts a lived-in and authentic feeling. The of-the-period characteristics continue with the eclectic fashion, the score by Luiz Lopes and a surprisingly star-studded soundtrack that includes David Bowie’s ‘China Girl’ and two songs from Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’. What also doesn’t translate completely is the freeform and meandering nature of the plot, which means it doesn’t flow naturally. Scenes and moments end too abruptly, the film takes turns towards the avant-garde that are a bit too bizarre, and it can feel stop-and-start at times as a result.

However, more than 40 years on from its release, the transgressiveness of Onda Nova hasn’t dulled in the slightest. Garcia and Martins’ film remains lively and colourful, full of sensuality and unbridled desire. Yet the other reason it works is the time the directors take to establish the women of Gayvotas. We find out about Rita, Lilli, captain Neneca and the other members. We see them bond, go to the nightclub and hang out after training. Neneca even opens her home where various players can come when they need a place to stay. And though that leads to a rather selfish moment, the community and camaraderie of the team are on full display. Onda Nova is already an important piece of cinema history, but these slices of life make it a worthwhile watch.

The new 4K restoration of Onda Nova was screened at BFI Flare on 25 March, 2025 and will be screened again on 29 March. Read our BFI Flare reviews and our list of 10 movies to watch at BFI Flare 2025!