San Francisco Chronicle - May 20, 2004
Jonathan Curiel, jcuriel@sfchronicle.com

Based on actual events, "Carandiru" shows a prison environment where guards eventually resort to violence against inmates. The crucial difference: Unlike Iraq, the prisoners in "Carandiru" have a measure of freedom and autonomy, if only for a while.

"It's unbelievable, the timing of it," says Babenco, whose film opens Friday in Bay Area theaters. "Everybody is asking me about that."

The name Carandiru may not register with many Americans, but in Brazil, it's a notorious prison -- or at least it was until two years ago, when Brazilian authorities closed it and turned its land into public space. Located in Sao Paulo, Carandiru was dangerously overcrowded; at its peak, the complex, made to hold 3,000, held 8,000 inmates. Murderers, drug dealers, gang leaders, thieves -- they were all crammed into the cells of Carandiru, but outsiders who went there were shocked by what they saw: a culture of order imposed by the prisoners themselves.

Babenco based "Carandiru" on a best-selling nonfiction book, "Carandiru Station," written by a Brazilian doctor who made weekly visits to the prison. The doctor, Drauzio Varella, discovered a climate where inmates fixed their cells like interior decorators, with artwork, curtains, TV sets and other amenities. These were the inmates with power -- the inmates who, more than Carandiru's guards, mediated prisoner disputes, meted out penalties and established codes for others. For example, in a rule that was in force during visitation days, prisoners could not eye another prisoner's girlfriend or wife. In this way, the inmates showed respect for each other.

"I don't judge them," Babenco says of his depiction of the prisoners. "This is not my business."

It seems as if Babenco's business is to make feature films about people who are locked up or wanted by authorities. His first international hit, "Pixote," focused on troubled youth in Sao Paulo. "Kiss of the Spider Woman," which starred William Hurt, Raul Julia and Sonia Braga, was about two men sharing a cell in a South American jail. "Lucio Flavio: Passenger of Agony," which is one of Babenco's first films, tells the story of a well-known '70s bank robber in Brazil.

Babenco has lived in Brazil since 1969, when he moved there from his native Argentina. Before "Carandiru," he had not made a film for several years as he recuperated from treatment for lymphatic cancer. As it happened, Varella -- the doctor who started seeing patients at Carandiru -- was also Babenco's doctor, and Varella faxed Babenco early drafts of his book.

"He was always excited to tell me what he had learned (at Carandiru)," Babenco says. "I was fascinated to see a man of science fall in love with this world that I was familiar with."

Babenco would read Varella's pages on his couch, still too weak to work full time. Under Varella's care, Babenco had a bone-marrow transplant in 1995 that saved his life. Physically, though, the operation segued "into some very miserable years. I was dealing with having death very close to me."

Babenco, who is 58, says he has been in full remission for five years. In person, he laughs a lot and shares stories easily with strangers. Babenco filmed half of "Carandiru" at the Sao Paulo facility (whose official name was the Sao Paulo House of Detention), in a pavilion that was empty at the time. The rest of the prison was still in operation. Even before making the film, Babenco would go there on Mondays with Varella, who first went to Carandiru in 1989 to test inmates for HIV. During Babenco's visits, the prisoners dressed as they wanted and spoke freely about everything, including their crimes.

"I talked with a lot of prisoners," Babenco says. "I would walk with (Varella) through the corridors to the cells, and drink lemonade and coffee with the (prisoners), and catch up. The fact they were in a prison didn't erase the traces of their own individuality. In another country or culture, these prisoners would become numbers and (be) in uniforms. The (prison system) would try to erase any memory of the man who did the wrongdoing. The characteristic of this prison is that people are still being who they were before. 'Carandiru' is a portrayal of South American society."

Last year, the film quickly became the biggest box-office hit in Brazilian history, and outdrew audiences for such Hollywood fare as "Spider- Man" and "The Matrix Reloaded," Babenco says. Though there is humor in "Carandiru," and the film humanizes the prisoners (we witness a wedding within prison walls, see many of the prisoners' "back stories," and otherwise see their lives from morning to night), Babenco says he didn't try to romanticize life behind bars.

"It was an awful place to visit," says Babenco, who made "Carandiru" in late 2001 and early 2002. "It's very sad. You see all the abandoned (items) from the people who were transferred. The smell of the cells. The texture of the walls. The energy. The prison was like a slum."

People familiar with Carandiru know about the massacre there in 1992, in which military police quelling a riot killed 111 unarmed inmates. The bloody episode at Carandiru is different from the abuse that happened at Abu Ghraib, but Babenco says it's all tragic, no matter how you look at it.

"In Baghdad, the fundamental behavior is to humiliate the prisoner, and I don't see in my movie any intention to humiliate anybody," Babenco says. "What you see in my movie are people who haven't been taken care of by society. But when the massacre takes place, this is even worse than humiliating people."

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