Carandiru (film)

Plot

This episodic story is set in Sao Paulos notorious prison Carandiru, one of Latin Americas largest and most violent prison systems.

Carandiru tells the stories of different inmates at Sao Paulo’s Carandiru Penitentiary through the filter of Dr. Varella, who goes to the prison to test the inmates for HIV. Similar to many Brazilian crime films, Dr. Varella narrates Carandiru, however, it is not his story that is told. He (like Buscape in City of God (2002 film)) acts as a filter for the stories of those that cannot speak.

The inhumane conditions of the prison, such as the 100 square foot cells inhabited by sometimes up to 16 prisoners, are shown, as well as the lack of control that the guards have. Order in the prison is entirely controlled by the prisoners themselves, which leads them to face problems such as murders, rampant drug use, and disease all within the prison.

Several stories are developed, ranging from drug addiction to murder to family struggles to romance. Some of the more memorable stories are Lady Di (a transsexual) and No Way’s marriage, Deusdete and Zico’s family dynamic, Ezequiel and Zico’s crack addictions, and Majestade’s “affairs.”

The prisoners are humanized to the audience by telling their stories, which makes the riot and the Carandiru Masacre even more painful for the audience to watch. Thus, when the film ends with real shots of Carandiru Penitentiary’s demolition, Babenco employs catharsis.

Themes

Innocence At one point during the film, Ebony sarcastically asks Dr. Varella if he’s noticed that all the inmates of Carandiru are innocent. All the inmates do see themselves as innocent, which speaks to the idea that the prisoners see themselves as people forced into crime. In this sense, Carandiru employs Dr. Varella as a social mediator who listens to all versions of the prisoners’ truths, allowing the audience a glimpse into their world, prompting the audience to see the incarcerated from a different perspective. By giving the prisoners a voice, Carandiru gives the prisoners a chance to tell their stories without facing judgment.

Morality The theme of morality plays very closely to the theme of innocence in Carandiru. While some of the characters are literally innocent, others (who are guilty) commit their crimes for potentially moral reasons. Deusdete (who has no history of crime) shoots one of the men who raped his sister. Another example is Majestade, who takes the blame for his wife’s crime. Majestade, though guilty of having two wives that only sort of know about each other (and are not very happy with that), is not guilty of arson and attempted murder (which is what he is in prison for).

Law systems While the focus of Carandiru is humanizing the prisoners, it still emphasizes the flawed Brazilian legal system and the prisoners’ own legal system. Deusdete, who murders a man for raping his sister, originally wants to report the rape to the police. However, his friends advise him not to, because the police will not take his allegation seriously, and will not look to punish the rapists. Thus, Deusdete feels the need to take matters into his own hand, creating his own “legal system.” The idea of creating a “legal system,” or “prisoner code of honor” fascinates Babenco, who stated that the code of honor was one of the most interesting aspects of the film. This highlights a problem rampant in the post-colony – that of indirect government in both the streets and the prisons.

Brutality vs. Civilization The focus on unfair law systems comes into play during the actual massacre during the climax of the film. The prisoners end their revolt and surrender all their makeshift weapons at the request of the prison warden. However, the police force storms the complex anyhow, killing hundreds of defenseless prisoners. The police are illustrated as monsters, killing simply to kill, forcing the audience to question whether the police or the prisoners are more civil. With that, Carandiru illuminates that Brazil has two civilizations, both of which are brutal: those who live under the governmental law and those who live under their own set of laws.

Cast

Background

Director Hector Babenco shot the film on location in the actual penitentiary, and in neo-realist fashion he used a huge cast of novice actors — some of whom are former inmates.

Distribution

The film was first presented at the II Panorama Internacional Coisa de Cinema in Brazil on March 21, 2003. It opened wide in Brazil on April 11, 2003. It was the highest-grossing Brazilian film of the year and third overall (behind Bruce Almighty and The Matrix Reloaded), attracting over 4.6 million spectators.

Later the film was entered into the 2003 Cannes Film Festival in France on May 19.

The picture was screened at various film festivals, including: the Toronto Film Festival, Canada; the Hamburg Film Festival, Germany; the Edda Film Festival, Ireland; the Muestra Internacional de Cine, Mexico; the Sundance Film Festival, USA; the Bangkok International Film Festival, Thailand; and others.

In the United States it opened on a limited basis on May 14, 2004.

Critical reception

Roger Ebert, critic of the Chicago Sun-Times, appreciated the realism of the drama, and wrote, "Hector Babencos Carandiru is a drama that adds a human dimension [a] ...Dantean vision. Shot on location inside a notorious prison in Sao Paulo, it shows 8,000 men jammed into space meant for 2,000, and enforcing their own laws in a place their society has abandoned. The film, based on life, climaxes with a 1992 police attack on the prison during which 111 inmates were killed...[the film] is a reminder that although Carandiru has disappeared, prison conditions in Brazil continue to be inhuman."

Stephen Holden, film critic for The New York Times, liked the film and its social message, and wrote, "Despite its confusion and the broadness of many of its strokes, the movie belongs to a Latin American tradition of heartfelt social realism in which the struggles of ordinary people assume a heroic dimension. The film is undeniably the work of an artist with the strength to gaze into the abyss and return, his humanity fortified."

Critic Jamie Russell wrote, "Making his point without resorting to liberal hand-wringing, Babenco charts the climactic violence with steely detachment. Brutal, bloody, and far from brief, its shocking enough to make us realise that this jailhouse hell really is no city of God."

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 68% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on seventy-six reviews.

Awards

Wins