Carandiru is a horrible prison which is something like 50% over capacity. So the prisoners are squeezed in like sardines. It's a different type of prison movie to a typical American prison movie, as Brazilian prisoners don't tolerate rape. Rapists are in a wing of the prison that would I think be referred to as administrative segregation in a US penitentiary, along with serial killers and informants. They are in the awful situation of never having any sunlight, they live in very dark cells, perhaps 7 to a cell that is not much more than 10x20 feet. If they were to go out to the prison yard, they would be murdered.<br /><br />The men running the prison from the prisoners side are career criminals, they're not serial killer lunatics or male rapists. That doesn't mean to say that everything they do is nice but it's not an insane asylum. There are guards on the walls with automatic rifles to stop people getting out, and a governor who will walk around inside, as well as a prison doctor, but these inmates are basically in charge.<br /><br />The film is played for a lot of magic realism, it's mostly a recounting of the experiences of the prison doctor. You get very surreal images like the doctor leaving late at night, walking down spottily lit corridors, he looks through the spyhole of one cell and there are seven men each watching a different TV with a different TV channel. There is also a man who makes strange patchwork Montgolfier style balloons that he tries to send out of the prison walls, which are always too high, there's a very surreal shot of one of these balloons rising and then slowly bursting into flames.<br /><br />Generally the relationship between the prison officials and the prisoners is relaxed, the prisoners get a lot of privileges for behaving, they can have televisions if they pay for them, they can have long term sexual relationships, they also have a visitors day where families will come in with picnics, and they sit and eat them in the courtyard, or go off to specially prepared cells for conjugal visitations. The prisoners have also decorated the prison, often with text, for example scripture, but also with many beautiful graffiti. It's like a purgatory, a beautiful horrifying lost world. <br /><br />The movie was made to memorialise the inhuman reprisals from the authorities following a prison riot. I think it does the job well. This is a great movie, and Hector Babenco is a great artist. Next stop if you haven't already seen it yet should be Babenco's "Ironweed".