Selected as Brazil’s official entry for Best International Feature at the Oscars, Private Desert charts a disgraced cop’s physical and internal odyssey to find himself. For smoldering Daniel (Bacarau’s Antonio Saboia), everything seems to be hitting at once. Recently suspended from the police force and facing an impending investigation into claims of brutality, he’s now struggling to care of his elderly parent whose health is in rapid decline. His only source of joy comes from flirtatious text and sexy pic exchanges with Sara, someone he’s never met and who lives across the country. But when Sara starts to ghost Daniel, he impulsively embarks on a 1,500-mile road trip to track her down, unaware of the profound discoveries that lie ahead of him.

What starts as an ominous and dangerous pursuit transforms into a journey of hope for Daniel and the object of his obsession—much as the film, for all its indictment of toxic masculinity, is also, at its surprising heart, a sexy and unconventional romance.