Pixote (1981)
Country: BRA
Technical: col 127m
Director: Hector Babenco
Cast: Fernando Ramos da Silva, Jorge Juliao, Gilberto Moura
Synopsis:
In Sao Paulo a street child lives in a reform school until his friends start being beaten to death by police; he then escapes and tries his hand at drug-running and pimping.
Review:
Sordid exposé of Brazil's acute juvenile crime problem; difficult to digest at one sitting but remarkable, and indeed controversial, for its use of an extremely young lead, whose performance alongside some extreme material says more than words could express about the corrupting power of environment. (The actor was himself gunned down in a robbery some years later.) The climactic scene, in which a prostitute nurses him like the mother he sorely needs, raises the possibility of humanity and therefore optimism, only to crush it immediately with the cruel voice of self-determinism.
Country: BRA
Technical: col 127m
Director: Hector Babenco
Cast: Fernando Ramos da Silva, Jorge Juliao, Gilberto Moura
Synopsis:
In Sao Paulo a street child lives in a reform school until his friends start being beaten to death by police; he then escapes and tries his hand at drug-running and pimping.
Review:
Sordid exposé of Brazil's acute juvenile crime problem; difficult to digest at one sitting but remarkable, and indeed controversial, for its use of an extremely young lead, whose performance alongside some extreme material says more than words could express about the corrupting power of environment. (The actor was himself gunned down in a robbery some years later.) The climactic scene, in which a prostitute nurses him like the mother he sorely needs, raises the possibility of humanity and therefore optimism, only to crush it immediately with the cruel voice of self-determinism.
Country: BRA
Technical: col 127m
Director: Hector Babenco
Cast: Fernando Ramos da Silva, Jorge Juliao, Gilberto Moura
Synopsis:
In Sao Paulo a street child lives in a reform school until his friends start being beaten to death by police; he then escapes and tries his hand at drug-running and pimping.
Review:
Sordid exposé of Brazil's acute juvenile crime problem; difficult to digest at one sitting but remarkable, and indeed controversial, for its use of an extremely young lead, whose performance alongside some extreme material says more than words could express about the corrupting power of environment. (The actor was himself gunned down in a robbery some years later.) The climactic scene, in which a prostitute nurses him like the mother he sorely needs, raises the possibility of humanity and therefore optimism, only to crush it immediately with the cruel voice of self-determinism.