“Before everything, it was dark. Then God started playing and making all things up. He made the man from the dust, and the woman from the man … Would women be different if they were made from dust, too? I’m glad I’m not a woman yet. Not me or my girlfriends.” This is how <em class="film">A Fabulosa Máquina do Tempo</em> begins. Told from the perspective of a ten-year-old girl, the film follows her and her friends’ journey from childhood to adolescence. Despite living in houses with dirt floors, without tap water, amid the aridity of the Brazilian sertão, they state that they were born with perks – able to eat, study, play, and dream of better futures. The girls invent time machines and travel to a past that was all about pure survival. They playfully deal with complex issues such as gender differences, alcoholism and religion. They joke about death, frustration and fears. Childhood innocence gradually gives way to a mixture of curiosity and anxiety about becoming teenagers. When they realise that fighting against the passage of time is futile, they travel to the future and envision becoming independent and successful women.