Carandiru: A Brazilian Film in the Memory of Havana Audiences

In the history of the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema (FINCL), there are films that left a deep mark on the audiences attending the movie theaters; such is the case of Carandiru, a Brazilian feature film directed by Héctor Babenco, who won the Audience Award at the 25th edition of the event.

One of the best-known prisons in the country—located in São Paulo—constitutes the starting point of this film that captivated Cuban and international spectators in the days of December 2003; and, although time has passed, bringing back its memory becomes a pretext to review the presence of Brazilian cinema at the event, ahead of the next edition of the Havana Film Festival, whose guest country will be precisely the South American giant.

The interior of that prison, the events that take place there, and other stories allowed Babenco to delve into themes and concerns of Brazilian society; a narrative journey that traverses the complexities of characters who are confined internally and also on the plane of reality.

Each of the conflicts reveals situations and problems that help to understand the changes taking place in Brazilian society in the early years of the 21st century, both from a political and social point of view, as well as from an identity perspective, and even at an individual level.

These themes will be present throughout the footage, capable of holding the audience's attention through the richness of the story, the performances, and the staging that achieves notoriety for recreating these settings.

In an interview published in the Festival Diary of that FINCL edition, its director stated that the film is an approach to the homonymous book authored by Drauzio Varella and that the plots are arranged in mosaic form with the use of flashback.

None of the characters exists in real life exactly as they are told in the film, although they represent the archetypes narrated in the book, Babenco declared at the time, explaining that each of the changes made according to the work's narrative contributed to creating its atmosphere and visual enrichment.

The value of Carandiru and the obtaining of popular approval consolidated its trajectory internationally since 2003, when it competed with other major proposals of Latin American cinema; therefore, winning the Audience Award means the identification of audiences with this story that combines violence, internal dramas, and the representation of events and characters marked on a social scale.

Among the works awarded at that FINCL edition is the Cuban Suite Habana, by Fernando Pérez, at the time the winner of several awards and considered one of the most recognized pieces not only of its director but also of Cuban cinematography.

The proximity of the new edition of the principal forum for the visibility of Latin American and Caribbean cinema motivates a review of those titles, those traces, and that constant presence of the South American giant's cinema in the days of the Havana Film Festival and in the memory of spectators.