REVIEWED
"You pigs can't terrorize me now"
Sandro alias Mancha the hijacker
Viewed as part of my Beware the Docs of March Marathon 1. Meet Sandro an example of the invisible street kids living in Rio's Bio Vista slums. That are safely hidden away from the tourist spots, so most travellers and even the world famous statue of Jesus himself never sees. On the 12th of June 2000 Sandro do Nascimento decided to 'Lift His Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven' and that it was his day to stand up, he hijacked a bus load of students at gun point. Due to the severe incompetence of the mostly casual SWAT police force, it was an incident that local TV news crews captured extremely close up from multiple angles, almost to the point of being on the bus during the incident.
Bus 174 is equal parts a true life crime piece and a social statement on Rio's class system and its poverty. The story is pieced together with interviews with the Sandros friends including those he met from a previous prison stay, the students involved, press and even a member of the farcical swat squad who hides his face. We learn Sandro's shocking tragic life story through a social worker and locals from his area. Its not a pretty picture, having no father he witnessed his mother being butchered in their shack at a young age (think it was 7 but could be wrong). Without begging or stealing food, he'd have starved to death. It does paint Sandro whose known by friends and locals by his nick name Mancha out to be a martyr, but you can't argue the fact that nobody gave a fuck about him before he hijacked the bus.
I've seen Brazilian street kids and prisons depicted before in several movies like Hector Babenco's brilliant Pixote and Kiss of the Spider Woman. So I had more than an idea what to expect. But seeing people treated worse than animals in genuine footage really hits the pit of your stomach. Such a shocking ending and story in general, the filmmakers José Padilha & Felipe Lacerda deserve huge credit for showing all the facets of the tragic event.
"Geisa lets go for a walk..."
Final words Sandro spoke to student Geisa
[PRFR: Personal Reasons For Remembering]
The footage of the student writing 'time and & hes going to kill us' backwards in lipstick on the buses windscreen, while at gunpoint. ohh and to never get arrested and sent to prison in Brazil.
Originally taken from Letterboxd
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