After failing to be admitted into the renowned São Paulo Symphonic Orchestra, Laerte, a talented violinist, is reduced to giving music classes to teenagers in a public school in Heliópolis, the biggest favela of Brazil. Among his struggles to adapt, Laerte has to relearn the transformative power of music through his students who need it most. Inspired by the true story of the Baccarelli Institute, a music school founded in 1996 in Heliópolis, The Violin Teacher charts the harsh class distinction between Laerte’s world of concert halls and privilege and the world of his students, rife with poverty and crime.