Hector Babenco takes us behind prison walls in Brazil (different prison walls than in his Kiss of the Spider Woman), in well-lit photography, for an episodic two and a half hours, where an affable doctor battles AIDS, educates the inmates, distributes condoms, etc., but mostly lends a sympathetic ear. Flashbacks, to show how this prisoner or that one came to be there, accentuate rather than alleviate the tedium. The climactic riot-cum-massacre in the doctor's absence, though it appears to be the primary purpose of the film, appears also to be an altogether different film. Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos, Milton Gonçalves, Ivan de Almeida, Caio Blat. (2003) — Duncan Shepherd
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