PHOTO CREDIT: COURTESY OF TIFF
7 Prisoners, the second feature from Brazilian American filmmaker Alexandre Moratto and set for release on Netflix in November. An aching coming-of-age story wrapped in a harrowing examination of human trafficking in Brazil. It is a truth that for many capitalisms degrades the experience of living. Forcing people to make undignified decisions in order to meet basic needs. Survival becomes an individual pursuit, and everyone loses. Through a pointed script and propulsive storytelling. Moratto smartly makes the stakes of living within such a perverse system clear.
Tucked in the verdant hills of rural Brazil sits a humble house with a tin roof. A young man hammers a piece of wood onto a structure, his brown skin glistening under the oppressive heat of the sun. His family — a graying mother, two siblings — toil away, preparing a final meal for him. Later that day, the boy will leave his quiet home for the loud, chaotic streets of São Paulo. Along with three other boys, he will work at a metal shop. They’ll send money home to their families, and, once they have made enough, done enough, they will return and tend to their own dreams. Or so they believe.