Caco Ciocler Movies

A lifelong friendship between two men forces them to examine how different their lives have become, and how different their perceptions of the world around them are, in this drama from filmmaker Lúcia Murat. Miguel and Jorge first met when they were children growing up in Brazil in the late '50s; Miguel's dad was a passionate music fan who was interested in the work of Jorge's father, a gifted samba composer and musician. While Miguel and Jorge became fast friends, as they grew older the fact that Miguel came from a wealthy white family while Jorge's parents were black and significantly less privileged began to make a greater impact in their lives, and as the two men move into middle age, Miguel (Werner Schüneman) is a successful politician and Jorge (Antonio Pompeo) is a high-level drug dealer who still controls street traffic from his prison. Miguel approaches his old friend asking for help with a proposal that would combat gang violence in Brazil's ghettoes, but Jorge is puzzled by the naïveté of his plan; meanwhile, Miguel and Jorge's worlds begin to overlap in another way when Miguel's teenaged daughter (Maria Flor) begins hanging out with dealers from Jorge's crew. Quase Dois Irmãos (aka Almost Brothers) received its North American premiere at the 2004 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Lais Bodanzky makes her directorial debut with this harrowing expose of an archaic Brazilian mental hospital, based on a memoir by noted activist Austregesilo Carrano. The film revolves around Neto (Rodrigo Santoro), an average Brazilian teenager who likes to skateboard, rock-and-roll, drink beer, and smoke the odd joint. His youthful waywardness infuriates his severe, demanding father (Othon Bastos), who longs for his son to be a success. One day, Neto hits the road with his buddy Lobo, but when Lobo cheats him, he finds himself out of cash. Forced to beg strangers for bus fare, Neto is seduced by a beautiful older woman. When he returns a couple days later, his father is apoplectic. When, days later, he gets picked up by the cops for vandalism and for possessing a joint, his father completely wigs out and has him institutionalized. The mental hospital is something out of the dark days of the Soviet Union -- patients are drugged, catatonic, and often bound to their beds. Neto tries to explain his situation, but the hospital refuses to release him. They have to keep their numbers up to meet the patient quota. If Neto was sane before his stay, he was left unhinged and emotional fragile upon his release. Soon his depression and his mood swings land him back in an asylum where, out of desperation, he does something violent. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide