Carandiru

Carandiru was a real, notoriously overcrowded Sao Paulo prison closed in 2002, which meant the film got to use the real location for its brilliantly choreographed scene of a riot and its aftermath - with more than 1,000 extras.

The brilliance of Carandiru comes from Babenco audaciously taking up much of the film's time simply building up his characters, with the inmates who tell their stories to the doctor becoming much more than just faceless criminals.

What we see at first looks like lawless anarchy. But as characters develop and social rules become clear, we see that the prisoners have imposed their own order in the absence of outside authority.

it makes some kind of sense that Babenco's script is as overcrowded as Carandiru. The director wants to tell everyone's story, but the film's 145 minutes are nowhere near enough...

...its memorable, sympathetic characters and calamitous climax make its moral, political, and legal critiques difficult to ignore.