• Directors: José Padilha, Felipe Lacerda
• Brazil, 2002
• 

José Padilha’s enthralling documentary seems much shorter than its two and a half hours’ length. This is the direct result of presenting the material with artful care, without judgement, bias or resort to the artificial dramatisation of events.

Those events need little spin anyway, consisting of the tragic life and death of Sandro do Nascimento, a Rio de Janeiro street youth whose attempt to rob the passengers of a bus in June 2000 escalated into a high-profile hostage situation.

Interspersed with the electric allure of live television footage is the story of Sandro’s life, from witnessing his mother’s brutal murder at five years old to surviving from day to day as a forgotten child on the streets of Rio. The pace of the documentary never slackens, ensuring that we form our own opinions only when we reach the conclusion.

• Director: Walter Salles
• Brazil, 2001
• 

Sandwiched between the superb Central Station and the even better Motorcycle Diaries, Salles’ period adaptation of an Albanian novel makes memorable cinema out of the simplest of storylines.

Walter Carvalho’s cinematography expresses aridity, drudgery and wilderness in a style reminiscent of Sergio Leone’s westerns, as Tonho (played sensitively by Rodrigo Santoro) struggles to break out of the suffocating existence imposed on his family by a long-running blood feud.

In common with his great films to date, Behind the Sun is another lyrical example of the director’s attempts to breathe humanity into the most inhuman of environments and it succeeds with surprising economy.