AllMovie

In this harrowing look at crime in two of the world's most dangerous cities, police struggle to maintain order as society's most dangerous criminals wreak havoc in the streets. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Saint Petersburg, Russia, the terrain with the greatest capacity for violence has come to be known as the "shadow zone." In this rare look at two places where violence explodes into chaos in the blink of an eye, documentarians Elisabeth Drevillian and Oliver Ferraro attempt to capture life by stepping back to let the cameras roll uninterrupted.