Criterion Challenge 2024 | 27/52 | Made in Brazil
Pixote is a 10-year-old boy who lives on the street. We don’t know his circumstances, only that the police round up him and other children who live on the street and bring them to a juvenile detention center. Some boys say the reformatory is better than being on the streets. But when older boys rape and murder one of the younger boys, the seams come apart, and the corruption within the center comes to light.
We follow Pixote as he navigates his time there — smoking weed, huffing glue, and remaining silent about the cruelty he has witnessed. When he and some others manage to break out, we see the world they have occupied for most of their lives. Is it better or worse than the detention center? Neither are lives that anyone ought to live.
The director set out to make a documentary about the street children of São Paulo, but the reformatory barred him from continuing. So, he collected the stories he heard and witnessed to put together this bleak docudrama.
The performances throughout are tremendous. Fernando Ramos da Silva, who played Pixote, had a similar life to the one he portrayed in the movie. After the success of this film, his illiteracy prevented him from getting more acting work. At 19, the police shot and killed him.
It’s hard, then, not to feel like director Héctor Babenco used and disposed of da Silva. Directors of social realist films have since taken more care with their actors — I know of one case where the director subsequently formed a charity that helped thousands of street children.
The ethics of intervention by documentarians is too complex to discuss here. But it’s worth mentioning if only to avoid completely vilifying Babenco, who was following in the footsteps of a long documentary tradition.
This heartbreaking film is one of the most unflinching looks at the lives that real people continue to live. While difficult to watch, it also feels essential.
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