CARANDIRU

Brazil, 2003, 152 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Hector Babenco.

We are impressed before the film starts to know that the book which has been adapted for the screen was a Brazilian best-seller, that it brought to hundreds of thousands of readers, devastating information and images about Brazilian gaols and the stories of the inmates. Author, Drauzio Varella, spent years treating prisoners in Carandiru. The prison was destroyed by implosion in December 2002.

Director Hector Babenco was a friend and patient of Dr Varella. He has done his friend a service in making this film. A character remarks at the end that he has seen many of the old black and white gaol movies from the US. We all expect to see the prison routines, and we do. But here they are quite different. The film opens with a violent dispute but it is solved with patience by the governor and the shrewdness by one of the prisoner bosses. And we are introduced to the doctor who then takes centre screen.

The character of the doctor is one of the most admirable on screen. His is not only a medical service and care, it is also a ministry of listening and healing. He is a catalyst for many of the prisoners to tell him - and us - their stories. These take us out of the prison into the world of mainly petty crime, of robberies and vindictive murders. With these flashbacks, the characters come alive and show their humanity.

Then there is the riot, an extraordinary re-construction of a 1992 riot in which the police took over and brutally killed 110 of the inmates. It was a massacre.

Babenco made Pixote in the early 1980s and portrayed the street kids of the time. He had intended no connection with this film. He said that on the third viewing, he realised that many of these prisoners of the 90s were the Pixotes grown older.

1. The film based on actual events, the prison from 1956 to 2002, its final destruction?

2. The popularity of the book, best-seller in Brazil, an adaptation to the screen?

3. Popular expectations of prison film conventions? This film using them, developing them? The central focus on the doctor, his ministering the prison, listening to the stories, a catalyst for change for the prisoners? The mention of the black and white American movies and their conventions?

4. The visuals of the film: documentary style, fiction and flashbacks? Darkness and light, confined spaces, open spaces? The flashbacks and the vivid colour? The musical score, the song "Brazil" during the final credits?

5. The structure: the development of the prison and its life, the inmates? Their stories? The massacre?

6. The audience entering with the doctor, his first day, witnessing the conflict? His growing understanding of the patients, taking the blood samples? The question about his return - and his being trapped in the jail before being able to leave? Thinking over his options on the train? His going back, the short prisoner as his assistant, training him? The importance for him of not judging the prisoners, listening to their stories, helping them in any way, his care as a doctor, as a human being? Admiration of the prisoners? Kicking off the football at the match? Assisting at the wedding? A portrait of a good and generous man?

7. The opening with the prison sequences, the conflict: Dagger, Lula and his trying to kill him, Ebony and his ability to control the situation? The upset, the violence? The arrival of Mr Pirez and the officers, his allowing Ebony to control the situation? The missing knife, his counting to three, their throwing out the knife? The ability of the trusty prisoners to keep order?

8. The various places and the people in them, the range of cells, possessions, positioning of bunks? Power within the cells? The corridors, the yard, the kitchen? The style of life, imprisonment and harsh? Yet the ordinary community and controls? Television? The significance of the brutality, the murders, sexual relationships? The gangs?

9. The spread of AIDS, the blood tests? The various people telling their stories? The singer coming to teach the prisoners how to use condoms?

10. The final massacre: the stupid reasons and the variety of reasons, the washing, the sporting rivalry? The action of the authorities, the prospective election? Pirez and his trying to keep control of his prison? The military takeover, the police and their being masked, shields, guns? Wanting to play cops and robbers, pursuing the prisoners, the slaughter? Herding them into the cells, shooting them in the cells? The fears - and the witnesses giving their commentary on what happened after the events? Making the prisoners sit naked in the yard? The information about the reality of the massacre, the number of prisoners killed, no police?

11. The character sketch of Pirez, a decent man, his administration of the prison? His relationship with Chico - and his not being able to allow him visitors, sentencing him to thirty days in solitude? During the siege?

12. The prisoners and their stories:
- Ebony, the robbery with Fatso, the shooting, the betrayal, the arrest, the farewell to his wife and son? His philosophical attitude towards the events? His role in the prison, people coming to him about killings, Zico and his wanting to kill Ezequiel?
- Highness, the rat in his cell, having to get stitches? The story of his marriages, courting the white girl, marrying her, the children, Rose Irene and his infatuation? The two families, dividing the week? The clashes between the two women, especially when they visited him in prison?
- Zico as a child, being taken in by the family of Franci and Deusdete? Their growing up, the stepmother? The swimming, his saving Deusdete? The assault on Franci, Deusdete asking Zico for the gun, his pursuing the two men who did the assault, shooting them? Not taking drugs? Zico and his drugs, going mad, the pursuit of Ezekiel? Throwing the scalding water over Deusdete? His being stabbed by the group? The visits and the godmother coming and the two girls?
- Lady Di, the transsexual in prison, the attraction to the short assistant? The tests, being clean? The build-up to the marriage ceremony? Their not being shot?
- Chico, the old man, his wisdom, assaulting the guard who commented on his family, the thirty days, leaving prison?
- Miro, the trucks, the robberies, his wife, the suspicions, going into the bank, the police attacking him, his shooting them, shooting his wife? His friend and his wife, his dying in the prison, the couple taking his child and fostering it?
- The mother and her son, wanting the doctor to protect him, his being a football champion? The cup, his being saved and pretending to be dead?
- Dagger, his authority in the prison, killing, unable to stab Zico, going mad, getting religion?
- Lula, drugs, steady hand with the needles? The story of Dagger killing his father in front of his mother?
- Beard, drugs, working in the kitchen?
- The religious groups, the evangelist groups and their sessions, the Catholic group praying?

13. A film of social insight, prisons, authority, values and life?