Based on harrowing true events, this film delves into stories of crime, revenge, love and friendship at the Carandiru Penitentiary, the largest prison in Latin America.
Prisons don't come much meaner than the São Paulo Carandiru Penitentiary, a decrepit cell block overcrowded with Brazil's most violent criminals. A tinderbox just waiting for a spark to ignite it, which is exactly what happened one fateful day in 1992 when riot police stormed the building. Through the eyes of Doctor Varella (Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos), we see a series of flashbacks of the individual backstories of the inmates, exploring how they turned to crime and how they coped with life in the overcrowded, volatile facility. All this leading to a fateful day in October 1992 when the military police strom the penitentiary. It is the ability to humanize its central characters - to make you care about the murderers, thieves and junkies who are Carandiru's citizens, and its doomed heroes - that gives the film its wrenching, tragic power. Filmed on location in the actual penitentiary. (Subtitles)
Brazil 2003 Hector Babenco 145m
