Aly Muritiba’s Private Desert is not just an intimate, erotic story of queer love; it’s a timely, urgent film of incredible importance to both Brazilian and international societies.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 13, 2024

Muritiba shows there is humanity, love, and connectedness even despite the initial difference, but honesty and sympathy are what drive this story.

| Sep 8, 2023

It might not be a grand romance for the ages, but Private Desert is certainly a love-story with a unique hook that will live with you after the credits roll. It’s just a shame it faffs about along the way.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 7, 2023

There is a change of styles from the intro’s sepulchral tableaus to something more loose and fluid, and Muritiba excels at infusing his drama with subtle state-of-the-nation resonance.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 19, 2023

It’s a film field with ache and passion... it offers hope rather than unending despair. T

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 1, 2023

Muritaba avoids the obvious at every turn. Where Hollywood might turn a story like this into a vulgar piece of exploitation, in Private Desert both Daniel and Sara are conflicted, complex people...

| Original Score: B | Nov 3, 2022

Aly Muritiba shapes an extraordinary queer drama which, through his raw look at his native land's society, exposes the fragility of the concept of masculinity.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Oct 20, 2022

One becomes certain that “Private Desert” is the type of unshowy treasure at risk of being overlooked...

| Sep 13, 2022

An interior journey that happens very quickly, but finds new life with a loved one and ends up acting as a revelatory mirror. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 13, 2022

A melancholic and poetic queer romance that teases out some interesting ambiguities about the nature of the story's relationship.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 12, 2022

Enters the dangerous realm of fantasy and wish-fulfillment, revealing that the makers of this film are as recklessly naïve and morally questionable as their protagonists.

| Sep 8, 2022

“Private Desert” is a remarkably nuanced story about love, masculinity, expectations, and vulnerability.

| Sep 5, 2022

Couple the brilliant construction with the intense performances from Saboia and Fasanaro, and we have one of the more memorable foreign romance films in recent memory.

| Original Score: 8.5/10 | Sep 2, 2022

What starts out as a gritty exploration of hyper-masculinity shifts into something surprisingly moving as it goes along.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 31, 2022

The film suggests that even an abusive cop trapped in a prison of his own macho truculence can change his ways when love is at stake.

| Aug 31, 2022

The result is a tender union of spirits, earned through genuine connection.

| Aug 27, 2022

While the film scrutinizes masculine traditions in Brazilian culture with tenderness and heartfelt sincerity, its deliberate pace and awkward structure compromise the broader emotional resonance.

| Aug 26, 2022

Muritiba understands that any portrait of masculinity that fixates too intensely on the cruelties and self-denials of machista culture are futile. Instead, he finds grace in stolen moments of tenderness...

| Aug 25, 2022

A protest for love, compassion and empathy. It's one of the most powerful, heartfelt and haunting love stories since Call Me By Your Name.

| Aug 25, 2022

A febrile relationship drama which plays on the traditional Brazilian concept of masculinity.

| Aug 23, 2022