Baronesa

This docudrama debut from Juliana Antunes (who was assistant director on the similarly neo-realist Araby) will open the Open City Documentary Festival in London this September.

The director worked with the women who form the backbone of the film for five years in the favelas of Belo Horizonte, presumably incorporating much of what she learned into this loose drama that explores the desires of its central 'character' Andreia (Andreia Pereira de Sousa), a manicurist who is saving to move to the less gang-torn area of Baronesa, her friend Leidiane (Leid Ferreira), who is raising her four young children alone and favela wide boy Negao (Felipe Rangel).

Despite the flowing realism of the dialogue, the film's construction is evident in the way that nobody ever looks at the camera and in the manner that the conversations seem to stick to one theme at a time - ranging from subjects as diverse as a ribald discussion of masturbation and the costing of elements of the future that Andreia is literally planning to build. This scenario building, however, has the benefit of allowing Antunes to focus sharply in on the difficulties faced by women in the violent favelas in ways that pure documentary would not.

She is able, for example, to open out complex discussions, such as the manner in which sexual violence can be passed down the generations, in a way that, thanks to the fictional element of the film, is non-exploitative. Her decision to keep her camera trained on a youngster not involved in this discussion also emphasises the way that aggression can happen in an off-hand, unseen way but still have a devastating impact. This sense of the presence of violence in the periphery of the women's lives - in sudden gunshots, in black cloth tied in mourning - is one of the strongest elements of the film, setting its female-centric narrative in stark contrast to the high-testosterone approach taken by filmmakers in films such as City Of God or Elite Squad.

The greatest sadness of the fictional construct, is that the hint of hope it suggests in its final scenes, may well be just as much of a figment as some of what has gone before. Audiences who know of the film's fictional element may be all too aware that the 'stars' continue their lives in the favela once the camera has moved on, while those who take it as a 'face-value' documentary may also be left with a skewed impression of optimism that may not exist in reality.