/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-BRAZIL: Inmates Sent to Slaughter

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 7 2003 (IPS) - "Carandirú", the new sensation at the Brazilian box office, recounts the story of the country’s worst prison massacre while also attempting to demonstrate the human side of those who lived under their own laws in the "prison-slaughterhouse" that gives the film its name.

This latest work by experienced and respected director Héctor Babenco did not meet expectations, according to several film critics, but it is already a phenomenon at the theatres, drawing more than two million viewers in its first three weeks on the big screen.

And it will be Brazil’s feature entry at the Cannes Film Festival, beginning May 15 in France.

"Carandirú" was aggressively marketed, with an advertising campaign worthy of a super-production. At 12 million reais (4.1 million dollars) its promotion sets a record in Brazil, but is 20 to 30 times less than what Hollywood spends on hyping its blockbusters.

The premiere of the film alone – with some 250 copies in theatres throughout Brazil – and accompanying ads, cost 3.2 million reais (1.1 million dollars), a sum surpassing the mere production costs of most Brazilian films.

"Carandirú", a fictionalised history, narrates the personal stories of several inmates at what was the largest prison in Latin America, and then reconstructs the dizzying events that led to the massacre of 111 prisoners on Oct. 2, 1992.

There are 18 main characters in Babenco’s film, backed by more than a thousand extras.

In real life, more than 7,000 men were crowded into the Carandirú prison, set in a central district of Sao Paulo and intended to house a maximum of 3,000 people.

It was not until after the authorities admitted that the complex existed in total chaos that the prisoners were moved to other detention centres. The site is now being used as a cultural space.

The film is based on the book "Estaçao Carandirú", in which doctor Drauzio Varella recounts his observations of the regular visits he made to the prison, beginning in 1989, to volunteer his medical services.

The doctor in the film, very different from the real Varella in his passive approach to the events around him, is the common thread throughout the stories and incidents. He listens to the prisoners and witnesses what occurs behind bars, except for the massacre that erupts on the screen in the final 10 minutes of the 145-minute movie.

It was essential, before reaching the point of the massacre, to identify some of the prisoners and show the human side of the criminals, says Babenco. The film is about people, "not about the massacre."

The stories unfold with the inmates talking about how they ended up behind bars, with Babenco using flashbacks in parallel with daily events to show how it was possible to build a community and survive the hell and permanent tensions within the prison.

The inmates have developed rigid rules, and death is the price they might pay for the slightest infraction.

And there are many killings, in the past and in the present. One victim is Zico, a drug dealer who continues his business inside the prison. He is knifed to death by a group of inmates, mad on crack cocaine, who have just killed his adoptive brother, also behind bars, by pouring boiling water over him.

Zico had been sentenced by his peers also for failing to kill an addict who did not pay for his drugs. Zico violated the rules of "the true chief of the prison", a fellow inmate who is in charge of the cocaine trade inside.

The cooking and cleaning duties are key, "the backbone of the prison," according to physician Varella.

His boss, at least as portrayed in the film, is the leading factor contributing to order in the community, the "judge" who decides on the life or death of those who break the laws of the prison community.

Everyone lives on the razor’s edge, forced to comply with the rules of the prison authorities as well as their own unwritten laws, which show no mercy to anyone, be they rapists, debtors or someone who merely "bothers" his cellmates.

The film portrays other events that illustrate daily life inside Carandirú, such as the story of Carrasco, responsible for dozens of murders inside and outside the prison, who repents and joins one of the evangelical churches active inside the prison walls.

Then there is the "wedding" of a small-time thief to transvestite Lady Di, and the final game of the prison’s football championship, which kicks off after the Brazilian national anthem for which everyone stands at attention.

The massacre ending "Carandirú" is triggered by a clash between two gangs of inmates, creating chaos in Pavilion 9, the most crowded area of the prison. Military police storm the building, opening fire on defenceless prisoners, including many who are not involved in the uprising and who have thrown down their knives in surrender.

More than 12 years later, no one has been brought to justice for the massacre. Only the colonel in charge of the military operation has been indicted, but he awaits trial in freedom and while serving as an elected deputy in Sao Paulo.

Babenco, praised for his past films "Pixote" (about urban street children) and "Lucio Flavio" (about a famous bandit), makes it clear at the end of "Carandirú" that his version of events is based only on the testimonies of the surviving inmates, not from the police.

As for the stories told by the prisoners, the word of warning comes from "old Chico", an inmate who refused to tell his own story to the doctor, saying it would just be "another lie".

Inside the walls of Carandirú, nobody admits their guilt, everyone justifies his crime, and no one is innocent, says the old man.