Justiça

Justiça gives an impression of the Brazilian judicial system and the people who, voluntarily or involuntarily, are part of it. For more than six weeks, the originally Brazilian director Maria Ramos filmed in courtrooms and prisons in Rio de Janeiro. She followed a couple of suspects (often without standing a chance in hell), a number of (sometimes shamelessly prejudiced) judges, and the passionate but powerless legal aid counsel Ines. Without a voice-over and interviews and by using images from surveillance cameras, Ramos registers heartrending situations - the severe conviction of the penniless Carlos Edouardo, whose girlfriend is heavily pregnant with their second child - and outrageous inequality - a female judge, whose verdicts bring disaster to entire families, is more concerned about her `well-deserved' promotion. Ramos captures the injustice in rigid frames, shot from fixed standpoints. The distance thus created consolidates the poignancy of the images.