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Carandiru
on DVD (2003)
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| Starring: |
Luis Carlos Vasconcelos, Milhem Cortaz, Milton Goncalves, Ivan De Almeida, Ailton Graca |
| Director: |
Hector Babenco |
| Studio: |
COLUMBIA TRI-STAR HOME VIDEO |
| Run time: |
149 mins |
| Certificate: |
 |
| User collections: |
Mindblowing Films, something diferent, An Anthropologist's Favourites, Subtitled gems, Brazilian Greats, Brazilian Best |
| Genres: |
Drama |
| Languages: |
Portuguese |
| Dubbed: |
Spanish |
| Hearing-impaired: |
English |
| Subtitles: |
Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish |
| Released: |
23/07/2004
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Brief synopsis of Carandiru
Acclaimed Argentinean director Hector Babenco (KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, PIXOTE), blends pathos and black comedy in this adaptation of the autobiographical book CARANDIRU STATION by Dr. Drauzio Varella, who worked inside Sao Paulo's now-defunct Carandiru Prison. In 1992, overcrowded Carandiru gained international infamy when military police troops, called to quell a riot, killed 111 inmates. The Carandiru population contained murderers, drug dealers, and all manner of petty criminals--all guilty--but also driven to crime by Brazilian poverty. Dr. Varella, a renowned oncologist, arrived at Carandiru to help with AIDS prevention, but stayed and began to treat the inmates for everything from rat bites to rape, and in the process shared their life stories.
Director Babenco articulates the horror suffered by these men by recounting the darkly humorous stories of their families and personal lives, and then uses that empathy to show the terror of the police attack. After detailing the state-sponsored massacre, the film ends with the patriotic song "Aquarela do Brasil," providing one last emotional jab. Like his exploration of poverty and crime in previous films such as PIXOTE, Babenco creates a frenzied and emotionally weighted story, filmed on location in Carandiru Prison just before it closed. The film signifies the global need to improve social conditions and places a human face on the anonymous prison system.
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Related
Critics Reviews
Radio Times
Hector Babenco's harrowing true story of conditions inside Carandiru, the biggest prison in South America, leaves you scorched and exhausted. The jail's brutality and squalor is introduced through the eyes of a new doctor (Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos), brought in to help control an escalating Aids epidemic. Despite the depravity, he finds solidarity and a lust for life among the inmates, who divulge their stories to him in a series of episodes that take in a gay wedding, a balloon-maker and a hitman's religious conversion. Babenco brought a new touch to prison drama in 1985 with Kiss of the Spider Woman, but that was a chamberwork compared with the sprawl of Carandiru, which uses at least a thousand extras in its second-half riot scenes. Babenco's control over everything might not be altogether firm, but his device of letting inhabitants explain themselves to camera is highly effective, and he ably keeps us hearing the rumble of discontent that will later erupt into nightmare rebellion.
Time Out
Based on the memoirs of a doctor, Drauzio Varella, who administered at São Paulo's most notorious prison, Babenco's...
Read more on www.timeout.com
Halliwell's Film Guide
Episodic drama, based on fact, that compassionately explores individual lives reduced to a horrific existence.
See all 3 Critics Reviews »
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