AllMovie

Based on a play by Nelson Rodrigues, the Kiss turns like a whirlwind around one innocent act: after an accident, a dying man is kissed by another man, out of compassion -- but this unusual gesture violates an ingrained social taboo that colors everyone's perception of what exactly happened. The man, Arandir Tarcisio Meira is hauled off to prison by corrupt police, and while he remains incarcerated, a journalist picks up the story and becomes obsessed with showing him up as a homosexual. The journalist himself is hardly a paradigm of mental stability, being tormented by the memory of how he had let his own son drown without doing anything to help him. His attacks ruin Arandir's life and when he finally gets out of prison, there is almost nowhere to turn. Arandir's father-in-law, with his own demons driving him to action, perceives him as the cause of his problems, and sees him as a way to exorcise his own inner torment.