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Lower City (2004)

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From Time Out London

A one-time assistant of Walter Salles, Brazilian filmmaker Sérgio Machado makes a fine break for glory with one of the sexiest films seen in a long time. With its handheld camerawork and deliciously grubby subject matter, Machado’s film owes as much to his Latin contemporaries Alejandro González Iñárritu (‘Amores Perros’) and Fernando Meirelles (‘City of God’) as he does to Salles. But while Machado’s tale of three twentysomethings scraping together a living in Bahia’s red-light district offers such sensational material as drugs, prostitution, armed robbery, suicide and cockfighting, ‘Lower City’ is essentially an intimate, well-observed, compassionate film about what happens when lust gets in the way of friendship.

The film’s simple but intricately drawn dynamic emerges immediately: 20-year-old prostitute Karinna (Alice Braga) hitches a ride on a boat with Deco (Lázaro Ramos) and Naldinho (Wagner Moura), two childhood friends who are sailing their small vessel to Bahia, where Karinna plans to work as a stripper. They charge her a fare of $40 plus sex with both of them. Once in Bahia’s cidade baixa (‘lower city’) – a seedy port area of brothels and bars – the three become friends. The two men also fall in love with Karinna. Their desires are open, their intentions confused; and she indulges them. Flesh becomes Machado’s canvas; he portrays their passion viscerally, dressing their encounters in blood, sweat and tears.

Here, and unusually, the love triangle is an open secret. But still the classic responses of envy, protectiveness and anger persist, sharply throwing a friendship into disarray. Alongside raw and detailed characterisation, Machado also delivers a tribute to a particular place and its way of life. The director spent many months researching and filming in Bahia’s cidade baixa, and he embraces its people and streets. The balance between the private and the public is thrilling.

Author: DC

Time Out London Issue 1841: November 30-December 7 2005

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