BrenoSilveira's Two Sons of Francisco has overtaken Carandiru tobecome the highest grossing Brazilian film in its home territory in the last 20years.

Thebiopic about country music duo Zeze Di Camargo &Luciano has sold 4.8m admissions and grossed $10.6m (R$34m) since itsdebut on August 19, according to local distributor Columbia TriStar. HectorBabenco's prison drama Carandiru attracted 4.6m viewers in its hometerritory in 2002.

Two Sons of Francisco,which follows the hard times in the life of the two brothers and their rise tofame, is already the number one picture of the year in the country - surpassingHollywoodblockbusters such as Madagascar andThe Incredibles. It was also selected as Brazil'ssubmission for the best foreign-language film category of the Oscars.

Producedby Conspiracao Filmes and Globo Filmes, the film arm of leading Brazilianbroadcaster Globo TV, the drama is already one of the highest grossing localfilm in Brazilian history. Bruno Barreto's Dona Flor And Her Two Husbandsreached 10.7m spectators in 1975 but market conditions were very different backthen, when Brazil was served with more than 3,000 screens as opposed to thecurrent number, less than 2,000.

Thebox office phenomenon of Two Sons of Francisco can be partly explainedby the popularity of the duo. Since their first hit, "É o Amor" (1991), thebrothers have sold 22 million copies in Brazil and won two Latin Grammy awards,last year for best romantic album and in 2003 for best sertanejo (Braziliancountry music) album. But there is another reason. This family film is able toreach a much broader audience compared to City of God and Carandiru,films with violent content.

Despitethe local success, Two Sons of Francisco hasn't been sold abroad yet.Producer Leonardo Monteiro de Barros, partner of Conspiração Filmes, ishandling international sales.