by Brad Balfour

G21 Contributing Editor

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NEW YORK, NY, USA - DIRECTOR HECTOR BABENCO LOOKS AT PRISON LIFE BRAZILIAN STYLE

Having returned from an exile of several years from filmmaking, Argentinean born/Brazil based director Hector Babenco reemerges with CARANDIRU, his fictionalized take on life inside the notorious Sáo Paulo prison -- which is now getting released in the United States after it had various premieres at various international festivals such as the Toronto Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival.

Through an ensemble of prisoner stories, the film details arguably the world's worst penal environment as it crescendoed into infamous 1992 riot that left 111 prisoners massacred and forced serious reforms within Brazil's prison system.

As Babenco explained in accented English, he didn't want to make just another prison documentary. "I felt I was dealing with something from the real characters who are human; in some way I stole [my characters] from the real people in prison. The film's story is based on a real doctor who spent from 1 pm to end of day -- ending at 8 or 9 o clock at night doing medicine for free. These are the stories he heard. He never questioned them, whether they were true or not. He never judged them."

Doctor Drauzio Varella's real life experiences from the time he spent inside this dreadful State penitentiary, while doing work on AIDS prevention, provided the material that became a book and inspired this film. While there he found hundreds of convicts living under degrading conditions.

Babenco spoke with the doctor to get a feel for what he went through. "He spent 14 years in there, and felt it was his responsibility to do medicine in there. He said to me, 'You know, Hector, I got a chance to do medicine under laboratory conditions as if it were the turn of century.' He had to look at the people, listen to their complaints and do an immediate diagnosis; many had the same problems, rashes in skin, congestion in the lungs but what was fascinating was how starved these people were for someone to listen to their own story, real or invented. It was part of a process of redoing the way they wanted to be seen or accepted through their own version of what they did. Remember, these are very bad tough guys; they did not just steal a Coca Cola. They're in for decades to account for what they did. I decided to make a movie in the same spirit of the guy who wrote [the] book -- not to be judgmental or denounce them."

It's not the first time that Babenco has handled characters outside the confines of established society. In his acclaimed 1985 film, KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, Luis Molina and Valentin Arregui are cell mates in a South American prison--, the former a homosexual found guilty of immoral behavior and the other a political prisoner. To escape reality, Luis invents romantic movies, while Valentin tries to keep his mind on his situation. As they cope with their situation, the two come to understand and respect each another.

In fact, Brazil's dark side has garnered not only Babenco's attention but that of other filmmakers as well. Both the fiction film CITY OF GOD and the documentary BUS 174 draw on the lives of the very poor from the slums--in this case, Rio de Janeiro--and the tragic consequences of such a life.

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THE PRISONERS OF THE IRON BARS-SELF PORTRAITS, a film that debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival along with CARANDIRU, was assembled by director Paulo Sacramento, from footage shot by the actual prisoners from Carandiru who attended a filmmaking workshop. Seeing the two films together provided an eerie mirror into a world few want to experience.

photo by tom lau

With Hector Babenco (left) is Rodrigo Santoro, the actor who plays one of the prisoners, "Lady Di" --a noted Brazilian actor who was in "Love Actually"

Said Babenco, "These films show the inadequacies of the global economy. Brazil is a very schizophrenic country. Two personas exist in the same place -- one that pays the debt and dances according to the rules of international economy, so maybe 15% of the population live like they live on the upper east side of New York, and the other 85% live like in they were in the middle ages. What comes out of this contrast is very provocative.

"For storytellers, this is intriguing. Who wants to tell the story of people who live on [New York's] upper east side? You American can do that much better than us. Without sounding pretentious--I am not going save the world or cause a revolution-- but films like mine might give a little clarity in a world with such painful contrasts."

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