7 Prisoners
7 Prisoners , from director Alexandre Moratto , is infuse in devastation and layers that mark the stark realities of laborers , powerfulness social organization , and dynamics . Co - written by Moratto and Thayná Mantesso , the cinema , set in Brazil , is gruesome and sheer , deeply nuanced and unrelenting in its geographic expedition of baron — who maintain it , who is pain by it , and how those at the very bottom of the rundle can transition from the oppressed to the oppressor . While often hard to watch,7 Prisonersis an important movie that dissects its characters and the bare world they find themselves sweep up in .
Mateus ( Christian Malheiros ) spend his days working the fields in the countryside . The 18 - year - old lives with his mother and sisters , with fully grown dream to go to college and become an technologist . To make money to support his impoverished folk , and to leave the field work behind for serious , Mateus occupy a job in São Paulo with three other new men — Ezequiel ( Vitor Julian ) , Isaque ( Lucas Oranmian ) , and Samuel ( Bruno Rocha ) . They ’re tasked to work in a junkyard that immediately looks like a prison house . The mattresses are unsporting and dank , the area is surrounded by prickly wire fences , and their boss Luca ( Rodrigo Santoro ) gestate a gun to keep them in line . Forced to bare copper and do other gruelling body of work , Mateus quickly realise that they ’re not reserve to pull up stakes and everything they need , including food , is a part of their debt that Luca track to ensure it ’s paid off . And as Mateus pick up the ropes and gets in with Luca , the line between right , wrong , and force begin to obnubilate .
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7 Prisonersexamines how even the oppressed can diminish into organization of oppression if it means survival and how these very systems are position up to support those at the top no matter what . Mateus tries to leave his situation , but he ’s meet with threats and abjection ; he and his friends endeavor to fight back , successfully knocking out Luca at one degree , but their families would get the brunt of the vehemence if they continued to renegade . For Mateus , the only path out from the bottom is to unite its ranks , impress Luca — who reveals quite a few things about his own past that give Mateus some pause — to control the safety of him and his family .
To that end , the photographic film is n’t a feel - good movie about how these prisoner are mark free , but an psychoanalysis of the tyrannous systems that keep them in their stead to conciliate the most powerful valet de chambre at the top.7 Prisonersis temperature reduction , gripping , and profoundly unsettling , peeling back the layer of Mateus ’ situation as it escalates and divulge the desperate verity beneath . Within the confines of the junkyard , dreams are for the naive ; Mateus ’ goal in living have nowhere to go , snare and vacate for a unlike opportunity and way of life . It ’s disheartening , powerful , and gut - wrenching all at once , with the film pop the question plenty of nuance and complexities in its report that will leave alone the consultation thinking about its message for a long time .
The film ’s weightiness is relentless , but Moratto knows how crucial it is to transmit . Meanwhile , the penning finds new room to agitate the chronicle forward without suffer steam or becoming boring , though it could have well flow into that trap.7 Prisonersleans into hopelessness often , demonstrate the skyscrapers of São Paulo looming over the nipping wired junkyard , as though a monitor of the exemption Mateus could have , only to learn it was never in reach . The cinematography by João Gabriel de Queiroz take the cinema to new heights , showcasing a unforgiving circumstance with muted , almost drab colors that run in bicycle-built-for-two with the film ’s motif and Mateus ’ journeying .
The film is elevated by Christian Malheiros ' expressive and moving performance . His eyes say so much as they take in entropy , assess , and emote . Rodrigo Santoro , meanwhile , is utterly chilling as Luca , cold , trigger-happy , yet also nuanced . Both actors give their all and their human relationship makes for a complicated , superimposed accession to the story being told in7 Prisoners . It ’s a motion picture that is sure enough a must - see , complex and emotionally devastating in its geographic expedition of power and pecking order .
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7 Prisonersis now streaming on Netflix . The film is 93 minutes long and is shop gas constant for lyric , some furiousness and a intimate character .
Christian Malheiros in 7 Prisoners
7 Prisoners is a Brazilian drama directed by Alexandre Moratto that delves into the agonizing worldly concern of human trafficking . The film follows 18 - year - old Mateus , depict by Christian Malheiros , who becomes trapped in a grim cycle of modern hard worker labor . As his struggle for exemption unfolds , Mateus must navigate moral and ethical dilemmas while deal with his unscrupulous captor , Luca , play by Rodrigo Santoro .
Rodrigo Santoro and Christian Malheiros in 7 Prisoners