Cited by some as the greatest of all Brazilian films, this 120-minute, silent, and experimental feature by novelist and poet Mario Peixoto, who never completed another film, won the admiration of many, including Georges Sadoul, and Walter Salles. In 2015, it was voted number 1 on the Abraccine Top 100 Brazilian films list. It is considered to be a cult film. One hundred Brazilian professional critics voted in that poll.
In August 1929, Peixoto was in Paris, on a summer break from his studies in England, when he saw a photograph by André Kertész of two handcuffed male hands around the neck of a woman who is gazing at the camera. This became the 'generative' or 'Protean' image for Limite. The film's unusual structure has kept the film in the margins of most film histories, where it has been known mainly as a provocative and legendary cult film.
When Raul Schnoor is seen screaming repeatedly, the actor was instructed to keep calling director Mario Peixoto's first name out loud.