[TIFF 2021] REVIEW: ‘7 Prisoners’ slides into the underbelly of Brazil

Rodrigo Santoro and Christian Malheiros in 7 Prisoners, directed by Alexandre Moratto.

Plenty of movies explore how innocent people fall into lives of crime. It’s often framed via familiar structures, like the Italian or Russian mafia, but movies in that genre can be limited by the expected tropes and character types. Sometimes a person’s motivation to break the law can be as basic and mundane as trying to survive in a cruel economy. That’s the idea behind Brazilian-American filmmaker Alexandre Moratto’s new movie 7 Prisoners. Moratto turns his camera toward a less flashy and possibly more destructive sort of crime: human trafficking.

We’re introduced to Mateus (Christian Malheiros), a young man living in a rural village. He’s been offered what seems like a great opportunity: the chance to move to the city of São Paulo, to perform manual labour and send his profits back to his mother and sisters. Mateus and his three neighbours pile into a van and are taken to a scrapyard run by Luca (Rodrigo Santoro). Mateus and his coworkers soon realize, though, that Luca has no intention of paying them. He intends to hold the men captive, force them to sort the valuable metals that come into the scrapyard, and if they don’t comply, Luca will have the corrupt cops on his payroll “visit” the men’s families.

At first, Moratto’s film feels like a straightforward escape story; you anticipate that the men will eventually outsmart Luca and find a way out. Mateus is the most educated in the group and becomes their de-facto leader. He stands up to Luca on everyone’s behalf, demanding basic things like showers and more efficient work practices. But the longer he spends in Luca’s orbit, the more he notices that his and Luca’s backgrounds are not all that different. Despite his current life as a pistol-brandishing tyrant, Luca also grew up poor and took it upon himself to provide for his family. Mateus’s distaste for Luca’s behaviour begins to fade as he sees the opportunities available to him if he relaxes his morals.

Mateus is put to work in a scrapyard, salvaging metal alongside other captives.

It’s thanks to Malheiros’ strong performance that this shift never feels too abrupt or convenient. Mateus’s face is knitted with confusion and fear as he witnesses how involved Luca is with moving indentured people around the city. But it’s not long before he sees how his education gives him a leg up over his fellow prisoners. He’s also frustrated that every time he tries to convince the men to be patient and let Mateus form a plan, they jump the gun and Luca punishes them for it.

As Luca, Santoro has never looked quite so dishevelled or desperate. Normally, Santoro plays well-groomed, preening villain types, and here with his greasy hair and long beard, he definitely looks the part of a guy who was handed a crappy job by a crime boss. We don’t get a complete picture of everything Luca is up to, but it’s enough to establish what may lay ahead for Mateus. Something tells me the freshly-scrubbed village kid in awe of the tall buildings won’t last long.

I thought there may be at least one big action set piece or gunfight by the end, but Moratto keeps everything very grounded. At just over 90 minutes, this is more of a character piece than a plot-heavy affair. I would be curious for Moratto and Malheiros to revisit this world maybe 5 or 10 years down the line, to show what happens to Mateus and how entrenched he becomes in the underbelly of São Paulo. As it is, 7 Prisoners is a trim, carefully researched drama, and it ought to be an easy addition to your list when it hits Netflix in November.

7 Prisoners gets three stars out of four.