Carandiru

Carandiru is a a very good film. I think it is not the best Babenco's movie (e.g. not so good as Pixote) but yet it is one of the best film I have seen during this last year.

In the first place, it should be remarked that it needs a lot of courage to put on screen the beautiful and crude Varella´s book on the day-by-day of prisoners of the Sao Paulo jail Carandiru (once the biggest jail on Brazil, now demolished). In particular the movie shows one the the darkest pages in the recent Brazilian history, namely, the massacre occurred in that jail in October 1992: during a rebellion, the police invaded the prison and killed summarily 111 prisoners. Not a single policeman was even injured during the action.

In order to understand the movie, I think is very important to stress how deep has been the relevance of this sad and cruel event in the slow evolution of the Brazilian society towards less barbarian standards. At the time of the massacre most of the elites, media and middle class supported the police action and only ten years later, in 2001, some of the authors of the massacre has been put on trial. In other words the Carandiru tragic facts of 1992 and the way they have been so differently evaluated here during these years, reveals in a tragic fashion one of the most explosive contradiction of the present Brazilian society, in which a large majority of the Brazilians is completely excluded and plundered.

The movie of Babenco show this clearly and powerfully. Babenco used different kind of approaches. Most of the time the tone of the movie is realistic even bordering a documentary, but there are scenes in which the movie becomes visionary.

I am not surprise that the film was not well accepted in the recent Cannes festival. Critics from the first world are not expected to know much about the actual situation of Brazil (euphemisticly speaking). The fact is that Brazil in the USA/Europe imaginary continues to be unfortunately the country of carnival, football and samba and dark crude point of view such as the one of Babenco tend to be considered as disturbing or worst boring. So, while in the preview session for the press in Cannes 2003 most of the comments were "too long", this nearly three hours movie is one most

seen of the year in Brazil.

One could easily get the wrong impression of the storyline here. Yes, it is based on the true-life massacre at the Brazilian prison in 1992 BUT that story is only shown in the last 30 minutes of this 145-miniute film.

The movie is really about the people who inhabited that prison back in that time. There are short profiles of numerous criminals, told through the eyes mainly of a doctor who is sent there. AIDs was a major problem in the jail. The doctor treats a lot of people who then tell him stories how they got to be inmates at Carandiru. In addition, there are bunch of scenes in which the inmates interact among themselves, shown as everything from antagonists to lovers.

Make no mistake: some of the stories are sordid, but its not as unpleasant to watch as one might think because the characters and the film-making are very interesting. The storyline moves fast, which is important considering the length of this film.

A viewer could even stop the movie at several points, pick up later without losing much since the story unfolds in segments. The ending (the massacre) really comes on suddenly. Unlike most movies,the story doesn't build up to the climax, here it just appears out of nowhere.

The same director who did the more-famous "City of God" filmed this and many critics here say it's not in the same league, but I thought it was at least in the same ballpark Both are entertaining, and most of us watch films to be entertained. So, if you liked ""City Of God," give this one a look as well.

Despite what some reviews and reviewers state, Carandiru is, for the large part, gloriously human and humane, without ever resorting to mawkish sentimentality. The story is based on a real event and when I saw it on TV some years ago and I so much wanted to see it again, I bought the DVD, now cheap.

Yes, these characters are a handful of long-term convicts in one of largest prisons in the world - 7000 of them, in one (in San Pualo, Brazil), that's designed for 'only' 4,000 and we are introduced to them and their frank, matter-of-fact lives as they describe their drug and sex life 'inside' to the wonderfully open and compassionate doctor ( Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos). It's from his perspective as, part of his training, he's thrown into the deep end as he tries to treat and educate prisoners about AIDS.

Amongst the knowing humour, there are tales of anguish, violence and heartache with the main character's stories being run as flashbacks. Most of the crime is petty but circumstance and poverty has dumped most of these damaged people into one huge melting pot, of squalor, STD's and drugs. One finds it surprisingly easy to be open and impartial about situations that could make your toes curl.

Despite the vivid colours used and the Latin music that gets played in and amongst this tapestry of a human jigsaw, where few of the pieces fit, mounting signs reveal an underbelly of unrest, a pressure-cooker that's about to boil over and when it does and armed police march in, the film turns dark, angry and really hits the viewer. I won't say why, though the closing epilogues do (very) partially redress some of what went on.

This is essential Brazilian drama. Gritty, hard-hitting, yes but if you've got the stomach for the excellent City of God, you'll have no trouble here. Buy it, watch it, you'll feel like a proper human being, I promise you.

Carandiru is a true hymn of humanity in all of us. What let the Brazilian riot squad shoot down over a hundred inmates was that following both prejudice and the professional drilling they had been subjected to, they regarded the rioters of 1992 as nothing but worthless scum. Bebenco does not defend his characters. Based on the eyewitness account of the prison physician, he presents us with assassins, murderers, robbers and drug-dealers who do not even claim they do not deserve their sentences (although many were kept in prison without convictions). What made them human was their continuous contact with the world outside. The visitation day scene is a memorable tribute to life in a truly Christian sense - everyone deserves to live and to hope not because of his own qualities or deeds, but because of the love others share for him. The character of the serial killer Dagger was essential to this purpose. His solitude in the midst of the modest pleasures of everybody else visited by his close ones was the first sign of the overcoming guilt which eventually took him to the preacher. Let this review not be understood as if the movie pursues to proselytize the viewers; I hope not to be too cynical to say that its prime purpose is to rejoice - to rejoice with the great diversity of human characters to whom Dr Varella and H. Bebenco paid their tribute.

I saw Carandiru after seeing Takeshi Kitanos "Zatoichi" at the Toronto Film

Festival. Let me tell you, my day was full of carnage but it's OK because both movies were very good. The director was there as well as an actor or two if I remember correctly, they spoke about the film with true passion which added to the essence of the final product. It opend my eyes to an event that I never knew of. Highness was a great charater, Graca was my favorite, he should learn

english and get into the indie scene in North America. Good film 7\10.