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Story of Brazilian bank-robber Lúcio Flávio, who fascinated some people in Rio de Janeiro during the 1970s for his bold robberies and spectacular escapes, and also because he was thought to be intelligent and “politically aware”. Before dying, he disclosed a network of corruption in Brazilian Police, and its involvement with the infamous “Death Squad” of the time, a group of policemen who went about killing criminals without giving them a fair trial.Read More »
With a blend of harsh realism and aching humanity, Héctor Babenco’s international breakout Pixote offers an electrifying look at youth fighting to survive on the bottom rung of Brazilian society, and a stinging indictment of the country’s military dictatorship and police. In a heartbreaking performance, Fernando Ramos da Silva plays a young boy who escapes a nightmarish reformatory only to resort to a life of violent crime, even as he forms a makeshift family with some fellow outcasts. Abandoned by those that were meant to protect them, they are forced to survive with the only economies open to them: sex and drugs.Read More »
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Kiss Of The Spider Woman takes place in an un-named, fascist country in South America. It is, essentially, a two-actor drama featuring two men, of vastly different demeanors and ideologies, who share the same cell in a brutal prison. Louis Molina (William Hurt) is a flamboyant homosexual window dresser who is imprisoned for corrupting a minor. His cellmate is Valentin Arregui (Raul Julia), a journalist jailed for his leftist political activities. To alleviate the day-to-day drudgery, Molina entertains Valentin by retelling the stories of his favorite movies.Read More »
Two American mercenaries and a missionary couple arrive in a remote outpost, the Amazonian backwater town Mae de Deus. The local comandante tries to coerce the mercenaries into bombing the local tribe of Niaruna Indians so that their land can be annexed for gold mining.Read More »
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His father has died, he doesn’t speak for his brother for about 10 years and he has a serious cancer. Diego is a talented film director with difficulty to deal with his sickness, which is making him lose his friends and family slowly. His best friend and doctor, Ricardo, gives him the news that he needs to have a bone marrow transplantation, otherwise he’ll die. He gets married to a beautiful woman, Livia, just before going to Seattle to get treatment. There, an enormous staff of doctors start to give him numerous medications and procedures. During treatment, he meets and Hindu boy, with whom he plays pretend and tells amazing stories. Odds are against him and when stakes are the highest, Diego gets a visit from a very Common Man…Read More »
The life of a boy in the streets of Sao Paulo, involved with little crimes, prostitution, etc
From Allmovie
Review by Jonathan Crow
Not since Luis Buñuel’s Los Olvidados has there been as savage and harrowing account of the plight of street kids or as damning a critique of Third World poverty and societal indifference. 10-year-old Pixote (“Pee Wee” in Portuguese) endures the brutalities of Brazil’s repressive, corrupt reform schools, where military death squads and juvenile prison rape are the norm, only to flee to the dubious freedom of Sao Paolo’s streets. Soon Pixote becomes a pimp, thief, and multiple murderer. Yet, through it all, the audience never loses sympathy for Pixote; director Hector Babenco makes clear that all Pixote wants and needs is a stable loving person in his life. Babenco’s work is in the same spirit as the 1940s Italian Neorealists who coupled a realist style with a keen sense of social injustice. His visual style is documentary-like and almost artless–a straightforward depiction of events. His true artistic feat lies in his handling of his actors, most of whom were street kids in real life.Read More »