Seen through the eyes of the prison doctor, Dráuzio Varella, this is his version of events taken from his book Estação Carandiru, and the innocent massacre of the guilty.<br /><br />Told in several short fables and sown together into the fabric of the last remaining days of the prisoners in block Pavilhao Nove, this is an account of the build-up to one of Brazils most notorious prison riots in modern history.<br /><br />Filmed in the prison itself before its demolition in 2002 and built in 1956 with its mass population of around 7000 inmates, made initially for the tinier amount of some 3000. Carandiru was never going to be a holiday camp, with its toil of constant hard drug use and the need for safer sex that the prisoners are perpetually being told. AIDS is rife here, be it via drugs or sex, and the violent life that has to be adapted to survive; no one is getting out clean, let alone alive.<br /><br />Slowly unthreading itself as a movie of human connections, Carandiru Penitentiary may be a holding pen for the sinners of Third World poverty, but their stories are typically international. As with each perspective, we are woven into each predicament and, possibly, led to believe that most are victims and victimised rather than perpetrators of crime.<br /><br />It is in these stories that have us empathising their plight and it can be all too easy to dismiss the fact that with every prisoner inside, it is inevitable, that there are victims' on the outside. It is also known that a large amount inside Carandiru was jailed without trial or lawful judgement. However, this is different, this is no ordinary colony, Carandiru is a self-run compound, run from the inside, and with its own rules and punishment; break the law and you end up inside, break the rules and you may never see the outside again.<br /><br />Extremely realistic language and its violent and unforgiving claustrophobic environment drives Carandiru along and is given the grace and respect of a highly talented team. Hector Babenco, whose career also undertakes prison movies such as Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) and Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco (1981), brings together one of the best cast seen for this type of genre. Rodrigo Santoro as muscular Lady Di, the charming and charismatic transsexual in love with tiny and likable Gero Camilo as No Way, who when eventually released wants to become a doctor. There is hope and dreams here, but in the light of day despair and misery are what walk these dark and destitute corridors.<br /><br />Carandiru with it inevitable climax is both tense and mesmerising and at times sympathetic, why, even if some had committed crime, did some have to pay with their life this way? This unfair and totally unjust execution of unarmed men is nothing more than butchery; this punishment certainly does not fit the crime.