AllMovie

While most folks who fall into the cutthroat underworld of Brazilian crime are never heard from again, filmmaker Kiko Goifman offers an edgy look at the malevolent web of kidnapping, murder, drug deals, and blackmail that has become just another grim reality in the township of Baixada Fluminense. Located just outside of Rio de Janeiro, the socially troubled region of Baixada Fluminense has become a simmering cesspool of crime and corruption. In March of 2005, Baixada Fluminense became the sight of a disturbing massacre when a well-armed death squad rolled into town and 29 locals were summarily rounded up and executed. Troubled at the fact that such a bold crime could go unchecked and the perpetrators seemed to escape scot-free, Goifman decided to visit the seemingly lawless region and attempt to find out just how things got so bad. As the most powerful criminal players in the area speak openly of deadly power struggles and personal justice, a permeable sense of dread fills the frame and it rapidly becomes apparent that morality has long since taken a back seat to the struggle for survival. In a land where the line between the guilty and the innocent has grown so blurred that it's impossible to distinguish the noble man from the cold-blooded killer, it seems that more questions are raised about the motivations of these harrowing crimes than are answered.