Visiting the beaches and streets of Rio de Janeiro, filmmaker Heddy Honigmann approaches elderly men and women and asks them to read some of Drummond’s explicit verses (“Love guide my verse, and as it guides/wed, soul and desire, member and vulva.”), triggering reminiscences the likes of which younger souls rarely hear from their grandparents.

An ode to physical love, through humor and solemnity, through bluntness and tenderness; through melancholy, O Amor Natural is a virile and comforting film with moving, funny, taboobreaking narratives about one of the wonders of creation.

Born in Peru to Holocaust survivors, the Dutch filmmaker Heddy Honigmann has been honored with lifetime achievement awards at film festivals in San Francisco and Toronto. The critic John Anderson has written that “she takes us inside the hearts of subjects most other filmmakers would never have noticed.”

What the Critics are Saying

"A touching fresco of art, memory and desire." - Chicago Tribune

"Charming, refreshing, satisfying! Revels in the spirit of lovemaking." - Cleveland Free Times

"This warm, simple film uncovers a rich vein of ageless, grassroots sensuality and joie de vivre." - Variety

"An idiosyncratic homage to Brazil’s most beloved poet. A lovely film." - Village Voice

"More remarkable than the poetry itself is the excited reaction it inspires in the interviewees. That such a documentary could be made in the United States is unthinkable." - New York Press

"A deceptively simple approach to the erotic poetry of Brazil’s cherished laureate. As surprising as it is moving." - LA Weekly