Carandiru (2003)

Directed by

Héctor Babenco

Genre

drama film, independent film, prison film, LGBTQ-related film

Country

Argentina, Brazil, Italy

Runtime

2h 27m

Rated

R

Rating

7.6 of 10 from 618 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A doctor working at the largest prison in Latin America treats inmates for HIV and AIDS. The film depicts the lives of the prisoners and the events leading to a deadly police massacre.

documentary-likeharrowingsomberimmersiverawvisceralunflinchingreflective

What happens

Carandiru is a 2003 drama film directed by Héctor Babenco. It is based on the memoir Estação Carandiru by Dr. Drauzio Varella. It follows Drauzio (Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos), a physician and AIDS/HIV specialist, volunteering work in the Carandiru Penitentiary, the largest prison in Latin America, in São Paulo, shortly before the 1992 massacre, where 111 prisoners were killed by police forces. The film was shot on location, on the then deactivated prison, months before its demolition in 2002. Babenco stated that Carandiru is the "most realistic film [he has] ever made", presenting the film as a new kind of Brazilian realism inspired by Cinema Novo. Due to this focus on portraying reality and the film's memoir inspiration, Carandiru can be read as a docudrama or as a testimony from the prisoners. The film had its international premiere at the main competition of the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. It was selected as the Brazilian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 76th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. In 2015, the Brazilian Film Critics Association aka Abraccine voted Carandiru the 95th greatest Brazilian film of all time, in its list of the 100 best Brazilian films. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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