Girls from ABC

Carlos Reichenbach's 2003 Brazilian film follows young women working in the factories of São Paulo's industrial belt. Aurélia works on a production line and her boyfriend Fábio gets involved with a racist group. The region in the title points to the industrial towns where the Brazilian labour movement was born. The narrative uses that history as background; strikes, dismissals and neighbourhood life enter the women's everyday decisions. Reichenbach was known for joining popular genre to political narrative. The film proceeds as melodrama and as crime film at once; the tone is uneven and deliberately so. The cast is largely made up of unknown performers. Who it's for: those who follow Brazilian cinema and narratives about class. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a consistent genre; the film keeps shifting between melodrama and violence.