My Home Is Copacabana

Four children live in the shanty districts of Rio de Janeiro. Their names are Jorginho, Rico, Lici and Paulinho. They have no home and no family with them. They shine shoes to get by. They scavenge for food. Sometimes they pick pockets. All of them think about getting off the streets. Nobody knows how that would happen. There is an institution in Rico’s past. He once escaped from that place in Caxambu. Then he falls ill. Rather than die outside, he chooses to go back there. The film watches the children without asking for pity. Endurance is as visible in it as poverty. The film was selected for Cannes in 1965. Cosme dos Santos and Dirce Migliaccio appear in the eighty five minute film, a Swedish production Arne Sucksdorff finished in 1965.