There is a Brazil that is not told in championships or Carnival parades, but in the sunny sidewalks of Sao Paulo. It is there that Amendoim, the mixed-breed dog protagonist of, was born Caramelthe new Netflix film directed by Diego Freitas. A story that starts from nothing and reaches everywhere, transforming a stray into a national symbol.
With CaramelFreitas has created a film that mixes intimacy, realism and poetry. But behind the film there is not just a story of friendship between a man and a dog: there is a cultural phenomenon. The “vira-lata caramelo”, the mixed-breed dog with a honey-colored coat, has in fact become an icon of resilience and popular irony in recent years. It all started in 2019, when the internet turned it into a viral meme with the writing: “This represents Brazil more than football or sambaSince then, he has been a mascot, a hero and even a proposal for a national currency.
A film without rhetoric: tenderness as a language
In this context, Freitas constructs a sober but powerful story, where human fragility and animal sweetness merge in a journey of rebirth. The protagonist, Pedro (played by Rafael Vitti), is a young chef forced to stop after a sudden diagnosis. When he meets Caramelo, a stray dog who seems to carry within himself all the melancholy of the world, a slow rediscovery of the meaning of life begins for him. The spark to start again after a devastating diagnosis.
Freitas avoids the sentimentality that often accompanies animal films. Caramel it does not move through manipulation, but through authenticity. The story moves on minimal tones, with a delicate and contemplative rhythm, where every gesture, every silence, every look becomes significant. The director does not humanize the dog, but lets the natural presence of Amendoim (the real name of the animal-actor) fill the screen.
Lucas Gonzaga’s editing alternates realistic moments with almost poetic interludes: Pedro cooking, the dog watching him, the city passing slowly around them. Scenes that seem to stop time, revealing a vulnerable but alive Brazil, where everyday life is transformed into emotional language.
Between national myth and auteur cinema
Since its debut on Netflix on 8 October 2025, the film has entered the Top 10 worldwide, climbing to second place in Italy. But the success of the film is also the success of its four-legged protagonist. Amendoim, the “Caramelo” dog actually adopted during filming, is today a social media celebrity, with over 150,000 followers and campaigns for responsible adoption. His image has become a metaphor for contemporary Brazil, a country that – just like him – has learned to survive gracefully despite its wounds.
Visually, Caramel it is a film built on warm tones and muffled lights, thanks to the photography of Pedro Farkas, who prefers the intimate nuances of kitchens and peripheral courtyards. Plinio Profeta’s soundtrack, discreet and melancholy, accompanies without invading, transforming the film into a sensorial experience rather than a narrative one.
The praise of slowness in a fast-paced world
In the end, Caramel it is not just the story of a man and his dog, but a reflection on the vulnerability and toxic efficiency of the present. Pedro’s illness becomes a pretext to question the idea of productivity and success, showing that strength lies not in doing, but in feeling.
Freitas thus creates a delicate but political film, capable of talking about identity, love and survival without ever lapsing into rhetoric. Caramel it is, after all, a hymn to daily resilience: that of a man, a dog and an entire country which, despite everything, continues to find beauty in its scars.
You might also be interested in:
