Angels of the Sun

Sold by her father, Maria is bought as a gift to deflower a son. Afterwards, her new owner sends her to his brothel in the Brazilian jungle.

The film impressively shows how women and girls are viewed as commodities in a male-dominated world. It doesn't shy away from showing us this harsh world in small bites.

Even if, of course, these only glimpses of the true harshness.

The main actress and the brothel owner deserve special credit here, for they play their roles very convincingly.

It's also good that Maria's subsequent fate isn't presented through rose-colored glasses. Because in this world where nothing is free, she can only pay with her body.

Sincere, didactic, sentimental, predictable account of how 12 year-old Maria (inexperienced, doe-eyed Fernanda Carvalho) is sold by her own destitute parents in Northern Brazil to be employed as a housemaid, instead ends up being forced to work as a prostitute under slave-like conditions in an indigent brothel in the Amazon, run by evil Saraiva (Antonio Calloni). Overcoming all odds, Maria manages to escape to Rio de Janeiro, where she hopes her life will change for better when she meets Vera (Darlene Glória, the unforgettable star of "Toda Nudez Será Castigada", unrecognizable after a series of unsuccessful face-lifts)...but will it?

The theme is important and urgent: child prostitution exists in most Third World countries (well, I guess everywhere...), but in Northern Brazil it takes endemic proportions, as it's not unusual for destitute parents to sell their own daughters to brothels, in a region where virginity is still a valuable commodity, and men pay high prices to deflower virgin child prostitutes, not remotely à la "Pretty Baby" glamorization. The fact that documentaries on the subject are difficult to make due to legal issues (they're underage!) makes fictionalized films like these essential and director/writer Rudi Lagemann shows he did his research homework. Nevertheless, the film seldom clicks, due to the usual weak points in contemporary Brazilian fiction film-making: the loose/inefficient direction of actors, the predictability of plot development, the abuse of formulaic characters and unconvincing/flat dialog.

If the film is ultimately frustrating, it's mainly due to cliché cardboard good vs. evil characters and the fact that we can outguess nearly every next sequence. The dialog seldom rings true, marred by the awkward acting of the young cast (with the exception of talented and more experienced Mary Sheyla), the mix of unlikely accents and the shameless scenery-chewing of the veterans (especially Calloni and Darlene Glória, while usually reliable Chico Díaz and Vera Holtz resort to ticks and tricks; Otávio Augusto is fine, as usual). The mix of professional and non-professional actors never lets the film impose its tone (it keeps teetering between melodrama and docu-realism). Visually, the film is also contradictory, as Lagermann indulges in carefully planned framings and complex camera movements that belie (and soften) the urgent, raw, ugly theme.

I sincerely wish I could recommend this film heartily; it IS a labor of love, well-intentioned and deals with an important issue. But if you want to see a really great Brazilian film about child exploitation and prostitution (among other throbbing themes), try to find the brand new DVD release of "Iracema -- Uma Transa Amazônica". That one is a real punch in the stomach and a completely successful mix of cinéma- vérité, improvisation and fiction, still as urgent and shocking as it was 30 years ago, and which -- tragically -- hasn't dated at all.

More the norm are child prostitute movies, and I like ones that shock and hit hard with the message. This is one of those films, an indie one with shades of amateurish as if for budget, whatever. It's seems like the producers, filmmakers, whatever, were really pushing hard to get it made. The subtitles look cheap. This is an impressive work I must say, where again the scum who sell kids are merciless. A 12 year girl, unbeknown to her will become a child prostitute as her slightly older scouted sister has caught malaria. What begins for this poor girl is a merciless hell as she becomes a commodity for sex from perverted older men, who buy them like objects, one girl described by a madam as "a delicate flower" or words to that effect is nine if a day, where the girls are doled up in gaudy dresses, eye candy for these perverted sons of bitches. One guy buys two girl's, including the 12 year old main of our story, who gives her to his 18 year old son as a birthday present, to lose his virginity. There are some ugly bits of this movie, where one girl pays the ultimate price for running away, which is truly is a disturbing scene. The film is well acted by the young cast, and there are a couple of hotties, but the film never detracts from the reality and truth about what goes on in this girl's hell, or in the lives of the other girls in this sickening trade, where the punches keep coming back at ya. Finally she has to escape, where again it's a revolving door. The last scene, especially is a reminder of that very fact, for the what the price of a child's beauty, holds. It's something as if a scene out of Matrioshki, where yes, the film is stereotypical, but they are all with their small familiarities, if plot points, whatever. But with this one, I like it's unflinching pull no punches, ugly side of the trade. An stern quality about the film, I admired.

I saw many films in that week and I was tired, but this film was like a slap in the face then I woke up, it was so strong. It's not a documentary, but an unhappier reminder of world that exists. Great photography and painful images. I consider it one of the best Brazilian movies.

The whole cast is a long series of cardboard silhouettes marching around in a silly dance. A TV report about child prostitution has about the same emotional and artistic value for only a fraction of the price. So why do it? Because the they can. Anyway, everything is cleaned up to sterility. The miners are poor. They have unfashionable clothing. Yet the clothes are clean and new. The brothel is hospital clean and there are no sanitation issues. There is no blood, no vomit, even the chain is new and shinny.

Why do they do it? Any of the characters moving around? Who cares? The team has a movie to shoot and big dreams. In the end, the screen announces this is made from true stories. Really? If that's so why is there only one story? And if that is one story, where is the evolution, the reason to feel something for the girl? In the end, after 90 minutes, the girl is just another piece of meat. Does she change? Does she have dreams? Long into the movie she starts speaking. She is trying to become human: she talks about pain. But she is cut short by the director's need to keep up filming.

I should have felt sorry for the girl. Yet the only conclusion rests: she was better off dead. And this movie unmade.

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