Baby

Wellington is eighteen and coming out of a detention centre. He goes home; there is nobody at the door and the family has moved. No address was left. He stays in the centre of São Paulo. He has no money. He meets a man in a cinema. Ronaldo is in his forties; he knows the streets, knows who is where, and gives him a bed. In return he sets up an arrangement: Wellington will earn and Ronaldo will manage it. A relationship starts between them. Wellington keeps looking for his family and Ronaldo does not want that. Marcelo Caetano writes and directs. João Pedro Mariano plays Wellington and Ricardo Teodoro plays Ronaldo; Ana Flavia Cavalcanti and Bruna Linzmeyer are in the cast. It is a Brazilian, French and Dutch co-production. The film screened in Critics' Week at the Cannes Film Festival. The matter it treats is a relation of dependence; the bond between the two is both protection and exploitation. The narrative uses the centre of São Paulo in real locations and the city is inside it. The film shows sex work directly and passes no moral judgment. The narrative does not build Wellington as a victim; the young man makes his own decisions. The character Ricardo Teodoro plays is its most complicated side. The photography is largely handheld and the night scenes dominate. The ending gives no closure. Its limit is the watching; the subject is heavy, some scenes explicit, and the narrative loose. Who it is for: viewers who like Brazilian independent cinema and narratives of identity. Who it is not for: it is hard, loose, and the ending unresolved.