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Details
Brazil 2003 146m
Director
Hector Babenco
Cast
Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos, Milton Gonçalves, Ivan de Almeida, Ailton Graça,
Maria Luisa Mendonça, Aida Leiner, Rodrigo Santoro, Rita Cadillac,
Gero Camilo, Lázaro Ramos, Caio Blat, Wagner Moura, Júlia Ianina,
Sabrina Greve, Floriano Peixoto, Ricardo Blat, Vanessa Gerbelli, Leona Cavalli,
Milhem Cortaz, Dionísio Neto, Antônio Grassi, Enrique Díaz, Robson Nunes,
André Ceccato, Bukassa Kabengele, Sabotage
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Inside Men on the Inside
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An incredible insight into the Carandiru detention facility in São
Paulo, designed to hold 4,000 inmates it held nearly twice that number when
the the prison erupted in violence. On the 2nd of October, 1992, 111 detainees
were brutally murdered by riot police as they crushed the disturbance.
Set within the Carandiru prison itself, Babenco brings us a captivating view of
life within the Brazilian penal system as seen through the eyes of the visiting
doctor engaged in bringing AIDS Awareness to the prison population.
Babenco weaves his tale well, enthralling us with both the reality of prison
life itself and the characters within the regime. This is a prison which is
overcrowded in the extreme, run by the inmates rather than the staff. It is a
delicate balance that comes crashing down at the climax of the film.
There is a veritable array of characters we are introduced to as they pass
through the doctor's surgery from all walks of life, and each with their own
story to tell. It is a tale of friendships, affiliations, hardship, dispute and
humour. It surfs the dichotomy of hardness against humanity, the apparently
ludicrous which becomes entirely acceptable in a restricted environment, and
Babenco gives a charm and creates an affinity to even the most awful of
criminals. It is gutsy, gritty and gripping, and for such a long film it is
nowhere near as numbing as more Hollywood-styled offerings have been. It is
packed with an astounding cast who all deliver superbly well, no matter what
peculiar affliction or disorder each character suffers from.
Like Das Boot this is a peek into a microcosm of a world which few will
ever see. A world inhabited by criminals, thieves, killers and rapists, which
is run on its on rules with its own hierarchies. Currency is crack and killing.
Pleasures are personal, and quite often 'perverse'.
But no matter what their wrongs, these are people like the rest of us who have
dignity and pride, and as the film progresses we come to accept them for who
they are and respect them for it. Unusual people in unusual situations exhibit
unusual behaviour and it soon becomes the norm. As we scratch away at each
character's shell we come to distinguish between what they are and who they are,
and begin to realise that at the core, these are, pretty much, just normal
people at heart. It is a superb exercise in entrapment which is used to knock us against the
rails hard as those that we come to see as part of the family are brutally
assaulted, cut down and killed by an authority as evil, if not more so, than
any held within the prison walls. Just as we are arriving at the conclusion that maybe it isn't really that
bad in one of Brazil's most notorious prisons, reality kicks in. The truth of
what this place is and those who control it becomes thrust to the fore.
After two hours of what can almost be called a 'jovial film' we are confronted
with a barrage of slaughter; a tolerable hell becomes one of terrible carnage.
It is an offensive tragedy that leaves the viewer stunned and shocked, and it is
not without some feeling of moral righteousness that the final scenes of the
film are welcomed as we watch the detention block demolished in 2002.
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