Another late night movie catched mid-stream or nearly starting. As I researched from the net, this Brazilian movie [in Portuguese of course] is titled Cidade Baixa [Lower City]. A nice little film set in the famous Brazilian favela with an "Abel and Cain" sort of theme - with one of the two main characters white [Deco] and the other black [Naldinho] - so much for colour symbolisms.
Here's a synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes:
"Steamy sex, glistening sweat, dark photography, grungy ghetto colors, and sudden violence pervade this Brazilian feature from director Sergio Machado. Alice Braga (CITY OF GOD) stars as Karinna, a traveling prostitute who trades her favors to lifelong friends Deco (Lazaro Ramos) and Naldinho (Wagner Moura) for a ride back to Salvador on their run down boat. After Deco is almost killed at a cockfight, the three form a temporary menage-a-trois friendship, but the intense love each man feels for Karinna coupled with their homophobic macho wariness threatens to destroy their once unbreakable friendship. The pair starts hanging out at the seedy strip club where she plies her trade, each trying to one up the other, raising money from a life of crime and crooked boxing matches respectively. Machado culls a lot of sweaty atmosphere from his locations and a grimy cast of authentic locals as extras. The three leads ably convey the passion and pain of living in itinerant, eternal adolescence, lost in a glowing fog of cigarette smoke, sex, sweat, and neon, struggling towards some sort of stability in the haze. A big Cannes favorite, the film should please fans of sexy art-house hits like Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN and AMORES PERROS."
Another movie review aside from the above can be found here. But I usually watch the movie first and read the reviews. For the filmography, see IMDb here. The release date is 2005 in IMDb under Lower City, while on SBS - the Australian release date is 2006 - Lower Town.
A nice little movie that seems to capture what life in a favela is like - or so what I know from movies of the same genre. The twist is less violence and more romantic interaction worth watching till 1 AM.
[Photo credit: IMDb]
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6 comments:
looks like a cool movie but i don;t think it will be shown in my country lol. nice actress by the way.
sounds like a nice movie.
Hi Lawstude... I think the leading lady - Alice Braga [Karinna in the film], attracted me to the actual film. She's a looker.
It's a shame that indie films like these are not shown or sold sa atin. It is cheaper to make than most boring Hollywood/commercial films; and gives us different viewpoints other than the mainstream ones.
Try your local DVD "re-seller"... hehehee.
Hi DonG, Definitely nice... different and local colour and content kaiba sa commercial ones. Very engaging and like having a trip to a place, you are transported to a "place"; and view the life of the favela.
I hope they get to show this movie on cable here in the US. I'll watch out for this one. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it.
No, thank you Panaderos for dropping by. I am sure your local DVD store [if you still go out to rent one!] should have it under World Movies. Otherwise start downloading...
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