AllMovie

The destinies of the downtrodden citizens of a Brazilian shantytown converge in director Claudio Assis' stark tale of life on the fringe of society. Though Recife is a major Brazilian city with over 1.5 million inhabitants, the lives of the well-to-do exist as little more than an unreachable horizon to those who face the bleak day-to-day reality of existence on the street. Though butcher Wellington (Chico Diaz) admires his wife Kika's (Dira Paes) devotion to her religion, his motivation for supporting her spirituality lies more in the fact that he knows she will remain faithful (which he has not) than in any true concern for her soul. Delivering meat to a Texas hotel which serves as refuge to a collection of lost souls not unlike the butcher himself, the characters come together as Wellington offers his neighbors a series of portraits. As life stretches into a never-ending cycle of wasted days and lonely nights, the citizens of Recife do their best to search for meaning in the face of crushing poverty.