Professor Xenofontes is hired as a consultant for the adaptation of Helen of Troy. Two scoundrels, employed as studio janitors, transform the epic into a carnival-style comedy.
Unlike Cinema Novo, which largely rejected earlier Brazilian popular cinema, Cinema Marginal embraced the world of "chanchadas," the musical comedies produced in Rio de Janeiro during the 1930s and '50s. 'Carnaval Atlantida,' with its self-referential plot and the legendary comedic duo Oscarito and Grande Otelo, satirically tackles a recurring question in Brazilian film history: what should Brazilian cinema be?