Once Upon a Time in Rio

The Cantagalo favela sits just above Ipanema beach. Dé grew up there and goes down every day. He works on the sand, sells drinks, and climbs back up in the evening. One day he sees Nina. She lives in the neighbourhood below; she has school, a home, and her family is in another world. The two start talking. When Nina's family learns of it they object. Dé's brother is in the drug trade and it is clear whose word runs at the top. The distance between below and above is two hundred metres and nobody crosses it. Breno Silveira directs. Thiago Martins, Vitória Frate, Rocco Pitanga and Paulo César Grande are in the cast. It is a Brazilian production. It was shot in Rio de Janeiro and the favela scenes were made in the actual Cantagalo. The matter it treats is the gap between nearness in geography and distance in society; the two neighbourhoods are side by side and closed to each other. The narrative follows the classic shape of forbidden love and does not leave it. The director was known before this for a music film; music carries much of the narrative here too. The narrative does not describe the favela through violence alone; there is daily life and family in it. The ending is hard and does not go where the romantic shape promises. Its limit is originality; the story is familiar, the characters conventional, and the narrative follows the expected steps. Who it is for: viewers who like Brazilian cinema and urban drama. Who it is not for: it is familiar, the emotional dose high, and the ending bitter.