The film is based on the book Carandiru Station, by Dr. Drauzio Varella, Hector Babenco's own doctor. Dr. Varella's book is a memoir based on his years as prison doctor in Carandiru Prison, São Paolo.

The population of the prison, built to hold 4,000 inmates was closer to 7,000 or 8,000. The prison was more like a labyrinthine city in its own right, with its own class system, its own laws, and its own law enforcement.

Meanwhile, the Doctor tries to educate the prisoners about AIDS, instructing them to use condoms, and not to share needles. Thought there is little he can do to stem the spread of AIDS, in an environment as insalubrious as Carandiru, even minimal health care makes a big difference.

The Doctor quickly becomes a trusted and respected figure in the prison. A series of characters cross the doctor's path, and at one time or another open up to him. They tell him their tales, what tragedy or injustice led them to Carandiru. And what joys or tribulations the fairly liberal inmate's life throws up for them.

All of this is a build up to a riot, which took place at Carandiru in 1992. Riot-police responded with lethal force. The police, claiming self-defense, killed 111 inmates. Somehow the police managed to avoid any fatalities on their own side. This may have something to do with the prisoners having already surrendered their weapons.

The massacre did not cause the level of international outrage one might expect, but it did highlight the appalling state of affairs in Brazil's prisons. This problem was in the news again only days after the film was released here, when a riot in the Benfica prison in Rio de Janeiro escalated into gang warfare leaving more than thirty people dead, fifteen of whom had been decapitated.

This latest incident underlines to one failing of Babenco's film: with the exception of the opening scene, the prisoners are portrayed as genuinely decent people, who have just had a hard time. While using all the stylistic hallmarks of recent documentary realism (except for digital cameras), the script is fundamentally dishonest, bringing the audience to identify with the prisoners so that their deaths seem more tragic.

The brutal dog-eat-dog reality of Brazilian prison life, underlined by the events at Benfica, is only suggested in Carandiru. Though the prison is run by a hardened criminal caste, and the necessity of criminal status for survival is talked about, the hardened criminals have their callousness and brutal savagery glossed over while their humanity is explored in depth.

Then the police turn up and are shown as faceless murderers. Perhaps they were, but it is over-simplistic to suggest that the massacre was perpetrated by evil policemen on innocent prisoners.

That the film is shot with both beauty and power, and the characters are convincingly acted certainly makes the film enjoyable to watch. The film remains interesting throughout too, as the prisoners' stories sometimes tragic, sometimes amusing, have that eccentric quality that real-life tales often do.

The message of Carandiru is and important one; it is a pity that Babenco undermines it by choosing to adopt a partisan voice.

Carandiru seems content to say “these are real people you killed, and decent people too!” As though how genuine and decent they were could be said to have anything to do with their right to Life.

Fernando Meirelles' City of God achieved far more by showing both the injustices and their consequences.


Carandiru opens on May 28th.

Cert: 18