7 Prisioneiros - 7 Prisoners
7 Prisioneiros - 7 Prisoners - 7 Prigionieri
Director: Alexandre Moratto
Starrings: Christian Malheiros, Rodrigo Santoro, Josias Duarte, Cecília Homem de Mello, Vitor Julian, Clayton Mariano, Lucas Oranmian, Bruno Rocha, Dirce Thomaz, Gabriela Yoon
Country: Brazil
Year 2021
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“Welcome to the big city, boys.”
The low demographic progression and the diffusion of wealth exclusively in some areas, as always in history, create an immigration flow to support the workforce of the most flourishing regions. These flows has often been managed by criminal organization.
Movements have only one direction from underdeveloped nations to richer ones, or, within the state, from the countryside to large population centres. This is the case in Brazil, the difference between rural zones and bourgeois cities is very high.
The human trafficking situation in Brazil is worrying. The Trafficking in Persons Report: Brazil issued by the U.S. Department of State (1) in 2021 explains severely gravity and corruption.
“The Government of Brazil does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. … It did not report initiating new prosecutions for forced labor, and officials continued to punish most labor traffickers with administrative penalties instead of prison, which neither served as an effective deterrent nor provided justice for victims.” (1)
…
“Observers reported police occasionally misclassified trafficking cases, suggesting such cases were under-reported. Law enforcement units at all levels had insufficient funding, expertise, and staff to investigate trafficking.
The government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government employees complicit in human trafficking offenses; however, corruption and official complicity in trafficking crimes remained significant concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action during the year.” (1)
However, something has been done:
“Individuals and companies on the list were prohibited from accessing credit by public or private financial institutions; the government reported its civil lawsuits against seven banks that continued extending credit to businesses included on the dirty list, initiated in 2019 ...” (1)
In the same documents, there are examples of how illegal immigration trafficking occurs:
“In one notable case, officials arrested a suspected trafficker accused of falsely purporting to be a talent scout for professional soccer teams to exploit young athletes. The suspect allegedly recruited boys from Mato Grosso to travel to Paraná to play soccer, where he restricted their movement and forced them to pay a monthly fee, purportedly to maintain their recruitment eligibility.” (1)
The new slavery is not recruited through brutality or violence, but through deception and flattery. This captivity is run by traffickers of all kinds. They are mainly criminal and mafia associations, although many are labelled as benefactors.
Criminals use polite gestures, professional methodology, flattery, adequate psychology, promising dreams, honest employment contracts, an honest salary, and a bright future to persuade four teenagers from the rural area of Catanduva.
It is the plot of the film 7 Prisioneiros - 7 Prisoners - 7 Prigionieri by director Alexandre Moratto presented at the 78th Venice Film Festival.
Mateus is eighteen. He lives with his mother and two sisters in the jungle. It is a lovely place. They have a shack next to a river, with all around lush greenery. This is a beautiful place to see and for a holiday, but it is hard and tiring to work. Above all, there is no income, money is little, insufficient to live there. So he, along with three other guys, accepts the offer of a broker: a job in a metal recovery company in São Paulo. Mateus has a nice family. They love each other. Establishing-shot, the forest, the noise of cicadas, and a hammer; Mateus is building a fence. Together, they celebrate his departure with lunch, exchange gifts and pray before eating.
Regrettably, the reality is infamous. The young were sold to exploiters in search of cheap labour. There is a passage of cash between the intermediary and the families.
Luca is the boss of the workshop. The arrival of the boys is ironic. They talk to him about contracts, about rights; Luca mockingly reacts: “I'll talk to HR”. In truth, the place is a prison, with cameras, barbed wire and a sturdy wall. The guys are reduced to imprisonment. Their salary is less than their expenses, including the price paid to their parents; they will have to work for free endlessly. They try to escape, but the police bring them back with violence and threaten their mothers.
Mateus is opposed. He is intelligent. He quickly learns to coexist with Luca, corrects his contracts, and gains his confidence. Mateus will become his trusted right hand. He chases and beats those who run away. The main social issues are human trafficking and maltreatment. Nevertheless, there is also a psychological and human theme: the relationship between Luca and Mateus. Another protagonist is Sao Paolo, filmed in many extreme-long-shots.
According to the director, the idea came from a TV reportage:
“Alexandre Moratto: Speaking of not looking away, the first thing I ever saw that really got me interested in and looking more closely at it was a piece on Brazilian television, where I saw a young man in São Paulo - which is a global, alpha city. The footage I saw was in the 21st century, and he was chained in a factory and forced to work.” (2)
and from the involuntary discovery of abuse:
"... they were literally chained, they had chains on their ankles and forced to work ..." (3)
The nonsense repetition of high-sounding words, with immense spiritual value, causes the decay of their most solemn moral meaning, causing a regression for the true victims. An example is a reciprocal accusation of fascism, nazism, communism, racism, etc. for insignificant circumstances.
In the Brazilian situation, the use of the term slavery to describe the forced purchase, sale, and treatment of workers is not a downgrade. Exploitation is real slavery. The author understands it:
"... I never thought of it as slavery, I always thought of it as a movement of people from one place to another ..." (3)
Mateus is the leader of the segregated. He is certainly smart and cunning. He is physically inferior, but he's clever, a strategist, and he tries to reach his goal: help and defend his family.
Luca is the evil and sadistic chief. He has resolute self-esteem. He is greedy, corrupt, disillusioned. He has only one wish: to earn a lot. However, he has a painful past. He tells it to Mateus. They have the same family background. Luca visits his mother with Mateus. In a sequence full of affection, the mother ignores how her son obtains a lot of money. She praises him for his generosity. Mateus will be contaminated by Luca's cynicism.
The other three prisoners are hopeless. Immediately, they display impulsive superficiality: it will be fatal to them. One has a girlfriend, he desires to save up to get married. Another one does not want to go home, he wants to live in São Paulo. Then, there is Ezequiel. Shy, he has an acned face, his eyes are constantly lowered and he cannot return home without money. He lives with his grandmother and her man, he is very poor. In front of the squalid cot of the workshop, he is stunned because “I've never slept in a bed before”. In the jungle, he slept in a hammock. He is illiterate, and when asked how old he is, he does not reply. He does not know the date. He will be sacrificed despite his poignant melancholy.
The audience identifies with the prisoners, with Mateus. There is disbelief in their naivety. As soon as they leave, they have already started raving with the usual speeches of the emigrant: I go, I make money, then I go back to the country, I buy a flat and get married. It will never occur, at least for the majority of them. They share their suffering. Their claustrophobia inside the dormitory where they are locked up at night. Or, blocked by the high walls of the courtyard during the day. The director accentuates this emotion by dividing the frame. On one side, the boys, on the other, the room; in the middle, an obstacle, a barrier, bars, a gate to symbolize their segregation.
The introspective aspect of the film is the relationship between Mateus and Luca. They both have a similar past, and adore their mothers. When Mateus arrives at the scrap workshop, Luca stares at him intently. Cut. Mateus is impressed and he and Luca gaze at each other insistently. The others are like strangers, they do not participate and do not notice anything. Their looks are repeated several times, as when Luca watches him while he plays football. Even when he hits his head against the table, their expressions show a sense of sensual closeness. It is the most common scene, where the camera takes a close-up or mid-shot and lingers on the subject for a long time. In another sequence, Mateus is in the mid-shot, he turns blurry and appears in his office with Mateus's gaze on him.
Yet, he helps his drunken jailer into the house, accompanies him to bed, observes him, then glimpses the gun and takes it. He could free himself, but, with the weapon in his hand, he sits in the chair and thinks. Can a human bond be born in servitude? A love? A friendship? What relationship was between them? Is it Stockholm syndrome?
Alexandre Moratto carefully selected these two roles. The actors - Christian Malheiros and Rodrigo Santoro - excel in their roles. The director talks about them:
“What I love so much about his performance is that he completely transformed himself physically, emotionally, and really did all of the work that is needed for that. But he still has his charm as Rodrigo, which is what makes it so unique and so his own. His performance blows my mind every time I see it, and you can tell audiences are really responding to his work in the film. I may be so bold, I think it's one of his finest performances, so I'm really thrilled to be a part of that.”
...
“About Christian, I worked with him on my first film. He was one of 1000 young men who auditioned for the role of Socrates, who in my first film is a young, gay, homeless person in a very low income community of São Paulo. Christian's very special because - apart from being born and raised in those communities, so his performance and his way of speaking and mannerisms are all very authentic, he was also trained as an actor from a very young age.” (2)
Everything happens in São Paulo. In the 16th century, Portugal colonized Brazil. Before their ships, the Portuguese were already in Brazil. They had settled in the village of Piratininga, the future São Paulo. The Portuguese needed manpower for their plantations, so they bought thousands of slaves.
The boys, when they look at São Paulo from the van, are amazed. They had never left the country. The cars, the skyscrapers are something unreal, seen only on television. Previously, there was a frame depicting the favelas of the city, but the boys didn't notice it; they are already used to poverty.
Alexandre Moratto demonstrates the connection and the reasons for forced labour. He avails of a metaphor. Luca invites Mateus to look up. In the streets, there is a tangle of copper wires. They bring electricity, telephone lines, wifi into houses, shops, factories. There are hundreds of energy and telecommunication poles. The copper recycled at the landfill is for this use. At the end of the dialogue, the director edits a series of shots of pylons, poles, infinite interlocking cables, concluding with some very long-shots of a nocturnal São Paulo illuminated by millions of lights. This wonderful brightness depends on Mateus and the other slave labourers.
In another conversation, Mateus asks Luca how all the immigrants enter: “How did they get here?” “By plane, bus, ship. Like any merchandise”and then, if they are numerous: “Are there a lot of them?” Luca's answer is meticulous. Immigrants enrich the metropolis of São Paulo: “Enough to keep this city up and running.” The culprit is São Paulo.
The structure of the film is clear, with a linear trend. The passages are underlined by precise scenes.
The presentation of the characters and their psychology is impressive.
Will they be able to escape? It is the basis of the conflict. Empathy with the boys is obvious. Then, a different feeling comes, a deeper feeling: what is happening between Luca and Mateus?
And the plot twist is twofold. Mateus' three fellows have no chance, they are doomed. While Luca and Mateus will go their own way. Someone will be left behind, but it is not important. Everyone has their own destiny to fulfil.
Suspense, rhythm and tension are the logical consequences of a well written screenplay. Editing is quick, with many breaks. The atmosphere is claustrophobic and filled with anger at the acts of inhuman oppression.
Unfortunately, the ethical element is disregarded. People are hungry, the desire to get out of misery, to improve one's life and if one has to step on own friends to succeed, it is only a Darwinian natural selection.
Technically flawless, for the close-ups on the faces of the two protagonists, for the pauses, for reading the environment. The film begins in an idyllic forest and ends with a long-shot of the city.
The sadness of the finale disappears with the shot of the shutter. It is closing slowly. There are those who remain inside, perhaps forever, there are those who leave, perhaps to become rich.
Directors: Natasha Merkulova e Aleksey Chupov
Starrings: Yuriy Borisov, Timofey Tribuntsev, Aleksandr Yatsenko
Country: Russia, Francia, Estonia
Year 2021