Lower City

Deco and Naldinho have been friends since childhood; they have a small boat and carry whatever they can find along the coast of Bahia. One night a dancer called Karinna asks them for passage and, having no money, pays another way. The three set off together. She sleeps with both of them and does not hide it. The men think they can share. Sérgio Machado directs in his first film. Lázaro Ramos plays Deco, Wagner Moura plays Naldinho and Alice Braga plays Karinna. The subject is not the triangle but possession. Karinna makes her own decision and neither man can accept it; the narrative shows how a friendship between men comes apart over a woman. The setting is the lower city of Salvador: the port, cheap hotels, cabarets and cockfighting pits. The city is shown from nowhere touristic. All three actors were newly known at the time and all three became among the best known names in Brazilian cinema. Walter Salles is among the producers and the film screened in Un Certain Regard at the 2005 Cannes film festival, where Alice Braga received a special award. The narrative is short and direct; it runs a little over ninety minutes and no strand is stretched. Who it is for: viewers who like Brazilian independent cinema and hard drama built on a triangle. Who it is not for: the violence and sex are explicit, the characters are not sympathetic, and the ending brings no resolution.