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The promise of a better life is intoxicating and all-consuming, and thrives in locations of grand economic disparity. “7 Prisoners,” set in Brazil, sketches the limitations and lamentations of such dreaming. There are hierarchies of power that control economies and labor forces, and there is exploitation built into those very hierarchies to maintain said power at the very top. Survival is easier said that done, and “7 Prisoners” is a fraught thriller that wonders at the fragility of the human soul.

In director Alexandre Moratto ’s familiar but still engrossing film, 18-year-old Mateus ( Christian Malheiros ) lives in the Brazilian countryside with his mother and sisters. They adore him, and he adores them. His mother works endlessly to provide for them, and the cost of living—groceries, electric, phone cards—is sky high. So when a recruiter named Gilson (Maurício de Barros) offers Mateus and three other young men from his village the opportunity to travel to São Paolo, they readily accept. Catanduva was beautiful, but Mateus, Samuel ( Bruno Rocha ) Isaque ( Lucas Oranmian ), and Ezequiel (Vitor Julian) don't want to work the fields the rest of their lives.

They leave behind wives, mothers, sisters, and other relatives to climb into Gilson’s van and drive into the city, and Moratto captures from the very beginning the disconnect between there and here . The countryside is tranquil but empty, while the skyline of São Paolo—with its endless skyscrapers and gigantic glass spears—is glittering but unwelcoming, full of sharp edges and unnatural textures. It’s a thoughtful visual introduction to the junkyard where Gilson deposits the four young men, which seems eerily like a prison. Dilapidated bunk beds where Mateus et al. are to sleep. Barbed wire lines the top of the junkyard walls. And its heavy metal gate clanks down with brutal finality, an ominous sound that signals the contract the young men thought they were getting isn’t quite so generous.

As Luca, the man who runs the junkyard and makes the men’s lives miserable, Rodrigo Santoro is practically unrecognizable. Gone is the heartthrob of “Westworld,” the dashing Castro in the “ Che ” duo of films, the much-hated Paulo from “Lost,” and the monstrous Xerxes from the “300” graphic novel adaptations. He is shaggily bearded, loose-limbed, quick with a slap and casual with a gun. With the easy narcissism and manipulation of so many oppressors, Luca tells the young men that they owe him for their travel, for their advance payments, for the crummy gruel they eat three times a day, for the rotten mattresses they sleep on, for the gloves they have to wear while handling scrap metal, copper, and rubber in the junkyard. “You’re lucky I keep track of everything,” Luca says with faux concern, and the men need to pay it all off.

Why don’t they leave? They try. Why don’t they complain? They do. “7 Prisoners” is produced by Fernando Meirelles , of “ City of God ,” and Ramin Bahrani , of “ The White Tiger ,” and both those filmmakers have crafted in their movies similar stories of top-down exploitation and the impossible weight placed upon the person on the bottom rung of that ladder. Moratto’s work is very much in conversation with those predecessors both in its overall narrative and in its protagonists Mateus and Luca. As the two men warily circle around each other, their animosity morphs into a form of begrudging respect and unintentional loyalty. Are they really so different?

The script, from Moratto and Thayná Mantesso , makes us purposefully uncomfortable with its answers. As “7 Prisoners” traces lines of influence upward, we meet more exploited laborers, more brutal enforcers, more nouveau riche bosses, more people in the web who benefit from abuse and corruption. Editor Germano de Oliveira keeps the film light on its feet as we travel around Brazil, grasp the quid pro quo business relationships that transcend national boundaries, and inch out alongside Luca on the grimy precipices upon which he is operating.

As the film probes at the human cost of so many broken promises and so many ruined lives, Malheiros’ expressive face becomes our anchor. “7 Prisoners” relies on him over and over to reflect our emotional disquietude, and the film is so nuanced in its transformation of its own stakes that you might not notice the gravity of all this until the final sequence. “Give him protection and guide him on the path ahead,” Mateus’ relatives had prayed before he left, and the path “7 Prisoners” guides him on is a humble-in-execution, devastating-in-impact journey that slips and slides between the rigid boundaries of what we consider freedom.

Now playing in select theaters and available on Netflix on November 11th.

Roxana Hadadi

Roxana Hadadi is a film, television, and pop culture critic. She holds an MA in literature and lives outside Baltimore, Maryland.

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Film credits.

7 Prisoners (2021)

Rated R for language, some violence and a sexual reference.

Christian Malheiros as Mateus

Rodrigo Santoro as Luca

Bruno Rocha

Lucas Oranmian

Cecília Homem de Mello

Alexandre Moratto
Thayná Mantesso

Cinematographer

João Gabriel de Queiroz
Germano de Oliveira

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7 Prisoners

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Watch 7 Prisoners with a subscription on Netflix.

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A hard-hitting drama that feels disconcertingly real, 7 Prisoners blends sharp storytelling with a searing social conscience.

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

Alexandre Moratto

Christian Malheiros

Rodrigo Santoro

Cecilia Homem de Mello

Vitor Julian

Lucas Oranmian

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‘7 Prisoners’ Review: Survival at Any Cost

Alexandre Moratto plunges into the psychological traumas of human trafficking in this gripping Brazilian drama on Netflix.

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By Isabelia Herrera

Deep into “7 Prisoners,” the protagonist stares up at the labyrinthine electrical cables of the transformers that power the city of São Paulo. He is Mateus (Christian Malheiros), a human trafficking victim from the Brazilian countryside. He works in a filthy junkyard for long hours without pay, stripping cables for the copper that helps these very towers run. A wave of wounded anguish percolates under Mateus’s eyes, as his boss, Mr. Luca (Rodrigo Santoro) says, “Your work powers the whole city.” The camera shifts to electric train lines next to slums and the glittering skyline of the city lit up at night. Mateus’s exploitation is so profound, an entire metropolis vibrates with complicity.

It is moments like these that reveal the strengths of Alexandre Moratto’s social thriller “7 Prisoners”: Rather than being a simple examination of a social problem, the film excels at excavating the deep-rooted, sprawling violence that affects everyone living under hierarchies of power.

Mateus arrives in São Paulo with a few others from his village, in search of a better life. But they quickly realize they are cogs in a trickle-down machine of exploitation that includes Mr. Luca, the police and politicians.

Santoro and Malheiros deliver excellent performances, their initially sparse interactions and facial contortions raising the stakes at every turn. At first, Mateus and the crew battle to escape, but Mateus soon realizes that obedience and collusion with Luca may be the only path to freedom. That sense of moral ambiguity propels this gripping drama, plunging us into the psychic depths of the traumas that accompany survival.

7 Prisoners Rated R for language and violence. In Portuguese, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. Watch on Netflix.

Isabelia Herrera is an arts critic fellow. She covers popular culture, with a special focus on Latin American and U.S. Latino music. She was previously a contributing editor at Pitchfork and has written for Rolling Stone, Billboard, GQ, NPR and more. More about Isabelia Herrera

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‘7 prisoners’ (‘7 prisioneiros’): film review | venice 2021.

Alexandre Moratto’s sophomore feature follows a group of young men caught in the dangerous world of human trafficking.

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

Arts & Culture Critic

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Tucked in the verdant hills of rural Brazil sits a humble house with a tin roof. A young man hammers a piece of wood onto a structure, his brown skin glistening under the oppressive heat of the sun. His family — a graying mother, two siblings — toil away, preparing a final meal for him. Later that day, the boy will leave his quiet home for the loud, chaotic streets of São Paulo. Along with three other boys, he will work at a metal shop. They’ll send money home to their families, and, once they have made enough, done enough, they will return and tend to their own dreams. Or so they believe.

7 Prisoners , the second feature from Brazilian American filmmaker Alexandre Moratto (and set for release on Netflix in November), is an aching coming-of-age story wrapped in a harrowing examination of human trafficking in Brazil. It is a truth that, for many, capitalism degrades the experience of living, forcing people to make undignified decisions in order to meet basic needs. Survival becomes an individual pursuit, and everyone loses. Through a pointed script and propulsive storytelling, Moratto smartly makes the stakes of living within such a perverse system clear.

Full credits

Venue: Toronto Film Festival (Contemporary World Cinema) Distributor: Netflix Production companies: O2 Filmes, Noruz Films Cast: Christian Malheiros, Rodrigo Santoro, Bruno Rocha, Vitor Julian, Lucas Oranmian, Cecília Homem de Mello, Dirce Thomaz Director: Alexandre Moratto Screenwriter: Thayná Mantesso, Alexandre Moratto Producers: Ramin Bahrani, Fernando Meirelles, Alexandre Moratto, Andrea Barata Ribeiro, Bel Berlinck Executive producers: Cristina Abi, Camila Groch Cinematographer: João Gabriel De Queiroz Production designer: William Valduga Editor: Germano de Oliveira Score: Felipe Puperi, Rita Zart, Tiago Abrahão

In Portuguese

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‘7 Prisoners’ Review: A Teenage Laborer Chooses Between Integrity and Survival in a Gripping, São Paulo-Set Thriller

Alexandre Moratto's Netflix-backed follow-up to his celebrated debut 'Socrates' doesn't quite have that film's soulful depth of character, but it's urgent and involving.

By Guy Lodge

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Near the beginning of “ 7 Prisoners ,” the illuminated high-rise skyline of São Paulo draws murmurs of admiration from a group of young rural Brazilians as a minivan ferries them into the city for the first time in their lives. They’ve never personally known their world to be so big, though within minutes of Brazilian-American director Alexandre Moratto ‘s accomplished, socially conscious thriller, it’ll grow smaller than they could ever have imagined. As migrant labor turns swiftly and all too plausibly into modern-day slavery, vivid, in-the-moment terror turns to more sustained, sweaty moral panic: The only way out of this prison, it seems, is to become a jailer yourself.

Moratto’s first film “Socrates,” a tender-tough, street-level study of a gay teen surviving homelessness in São Paulo, won him the Someone to Watch Award at the 2019 Independent Spirit Awards, and the more polished, pumped-up “7 Prisoners” seemingly hits the screen with something to prove: not just talent, which was evident enough already, but a more mainstream sensibility. Job done: Produced by Fernando Meirelles and long-term mentor Ramin Bahrani, Moratto’s sophomore feature may not back down on his humanitarian concerns over poverty and exploitation in Brazil’s favelas, but it’s plain to see why Netflix hopped aboard this efficiently gripping, just-thoughtful-enough genre piece as its global distributor.

Still, if “7 Prisoners” sees Moratto stepping into a larger spotlight, it’s heartening to see him bringing a crucial past collaborator with him: Christian Malheiros, the young Brazilian newcomer whose mature, emotionally intuitive performance was so integral to the success of “Socrates,” and who once more assumes leading-man duties here with sturdy grace. Moratto and co-writer Thayna Mantesso give him fewer notes to play, however. Their story this time depends more on types than richly dimensional characters for its power: Malheiros’ naturally soulful presence fills in a fair few blank spaces in 18-year-old protagonist Mateus, the alpha male in a doting household of women, who must leave the family smallholding to provide for his mother and sisters with a big-city job.

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Spirits are high when he and a few other boys from his village hop into a São Paulo-bound shuttle, having all secured menial work at the same metal scrapyard on the city limits. The audience is unlikely to share the youths’ surprise when, upon arrival, working and living conditions aren’t remotely what they were promised: They’re crammed into a filthy, cell-like dormitory, meals are an afterthought and their shifty new boss Luca (Rodrigo Santoro) is evasive on the subject of payment. When they raise their concerns, the situation worsens, fully exposing the trafficking trap into which they’ve stepped: The boys are stripped of their phones, locked into their dorm when not working under strict surveillance, and have their wages suspended until the vast alleged debt of their living expenses is cleared.

While his fellow prisoners variously weep, rage and make futile escape attempts, Mateus — who, having passed eighth grade, is regarded as the brains of the group — stoically comes to the realization that the only way out may be compliance, and eventual complicity, with Luca’s corruption. As his cooperation gradually earns him privileges and promotion above the rest of the group, Mateus wrestles silently with his conscience: Is he climbing the ladder in the hope of pulling the others up with it, or just protecting himself in an otherwise hopeless scenario? Malheiros’ internally wounded performance makes the burden of these decisions clear in his heavy gait and deliberate, hesitant body language. The right course of action is never signposted.

Elsewhere, “7 Prisoners” goes a little too easy on its audience, even as João Gabriel De Queiroz’s grimy, shadowed camerawork and the film’s nippy, jagged editing hold us at a cool distance. Though Santoro’s performance is compellingly psychotic, Luca remains a surface-level villain, simple to root against even as the film hints at a similarly family-minded, come-from-nothing backstory to Mateus. Mateus’ peers, meanwhile, aren’t much defined beyond a single characteristic at a time — hot-headed, anxious, and so on — and thus don’t really compete with the protagonist for our sympathies, even as feelings of betrayal arise.

It’s here where Moratto’s film, heart-quickening as it is, wants for the character-based subtlety and sensitivity of his debut. It immerses us so deeply in the “what would you do” aspect of its storytelling that what they do, and why, gets shorter shrift. Still, “7 Prisoners’ unfolds satisfyingly, precisely by not offering us complete satisfaction or certainty. The question hovers of whether Mateus can ever escape his prison altogether, or merely into one with more comfortable furniture.

Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (Orizzonti Extra), Sept. 6, 2021. (Also in Toronto Film Festival.) Running time: 94 MIN. (Original title: "7 Prisioneiros")

Production: (Brazil-U.S.) A Netflix release and presentation of a Noruz Films, 02 Filmes production. Producers: Ramin Bahrani, Fernando Meirelles, Alexandre Moratto, Andrea Barata Ribeiro, Bel Berlinck.
Crew: Director: Alexandre Moratto. Screenplay: Moratto, Thayna Mantesso. Camera: João Gabriel De Queiroz. Editor: Germano de Oliveira. Music: Filipe Puperi, Rita Zart, Tiago Abrahão.
With: Christian Malheiros, Rodrigo Santoro, Bruno Rocha, Vitor Julian, Lucas Oranmian, Cecília Homem de Mello, Dirce Thomaz. (Portuguese dialogue)

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Christian Malheiros as Mateus in 7 Prisoners.

7 Prisoners review – a powerful tale of slavery in modern-day São Paulo

An impoverished teen seeks to escape the clutches of a human trafficker in Alexandre Moratto’s complex drama

B razilian director Alexandre Moratto’s follow-up to his award-winning debut Socrates , 7 Prisoners delves into the subject of modern slavery through the eyes of 18-year-old Mateus (Christian Malheiros, excellent). In order to support his family, Mateus takes a job in the city, but finds himself imprisoned and working off a seemingly endless debt to his employer (Rodrigo Santoro). His initial reaction is desperation and anger, but Mateus is smart and negotiates with his captor on behalf of his fellow workers. The rather on-the-nose storytelling grows increasingly complex and interesting the further that the protagonist ventures into morally ambiguous territory.

In cinemas and on Netflix from 11 November

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Human trafficking
World cinema

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‘7 Prisoners’ Review: A Harrowing Moral Thriller About Human Trafficking in the Junkyards of Brazil

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Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2021 Venice Film Festival. Netflix releases the film on its streaming platform on Thursday, November 11.

A harrowing Brazilian hostage thriller wrapped inside a mercilessly harsh coming-of-age story, the second feature by filmmaker Alexandre Moratto (“ Socrates ”) hinges on the moral dilemma that confronts a poor 18-year-old farm worker after he trades the outskirts of Catanduva for the big city of São Paulo in order to send money back to his ailing mom.

The kid’s name is Mateus (“Socrates” lead Christian Malheiros), and he’s a rock-solid human who would do anything to support his family. It’s with evident reluctance that Mateus has agreed to leave home, and he winces when his mom presents him with a new shirt for the occasion — she could’ve bought an entire month’s worth of groceries for the same amount. Mateus is more accepting of the protective necklace she gives him for good luck, and the aviation magazine that his little sister offers with a similar degree of ceremony; with big dreams and a good head on his shoulders, there’s no telling how high he might fly. The man who picks him up promises Mateus’ mom that her son will make her proud.

Our hero and the three other boys in his van are dazzled by the skyscrapers that dot the streets of São Paulo, but their ascent runs into some rather severe turbulence once the kids arrive at the factory lot where they’ll be tearing rubber off copper wire by day and sleeping in a filthy dormitory at night. It’s warning light after warning light from the moment they meet their small-time gangster of a boss, Luca; he’s played by scruffy heartthrob Rodrigo Santoro , whose menacing performance suggests a beautiful garden overgrown by poisonous weeds. Luca is big on “talking about paychecks later” and “flashing the bulky pistol he carries in his back pocket.” When Mateus — whose eighth grade education and moral fiber make him the new hires’ de facto leader — insists that he’s only interested in doing honest work, Luca jokes about checking in with HR.

The situation deteriorates quickly from there, as workplace is usurped by the language of human trafficking. Luca locks the boys in the junkyard, and insists that he’ll only let them out once they pay the “debt” they owe him. Try to escape and he’ll kill their families, run to the corrupt local cops and they’ll be pistol-whipped for their insolence. Suddenly, the skyscrapers don’t resemble opportunity so much as the gates of an insurmountable prison cell.

But Mateus is no mere country bumpkin. On the contrary, he’s the Andy Dufresne of trafficked Brazilian teens, and his mind for contract language soon forces Luca to recognize him as manager-level material. Less than a month after being locked up with his new friends, Mateus finds himself holding the key to their cell. He wants to help the other boys, yet he knows that rising through the ranks of Luca’s criminal enterprise is the only way that he’ll ever be able to meaningfully provide for his mother. Mateus is a smart kid, but he has a lot to learn about the line between self-preservation and complicity, and the tests awaiting him get harder every day.

“7 Prisoners” is mostly powered by the natural tension of its premise, which is simple and gripping and develops along a linear arc from bad to worse. Moratto’s unfussy but visceral direction chokes every scene with a feeling of the walls closing in on all sides, just as the script he co-wrote with Thayná Mantesso latently emphasizes the lack of choice available to its characters (Luca included, perhaps). Malheiros’ performance maintains some of the blankness that’s often implicit to stories about young people reckoning with their agency for the first time, but the actor so vividly embodies the relationship between power and responsibility that his most ruthless choices become doubly agonizing because of the violence they inflict on his own sense of self.

There isn’t much more to this lean and satisfying movie than that, but Moratto complicates the central dilemma with the skill of a master dramatist. The latticework of tensions that form between Mateus and the other workers are simple but keenly felt, and the second half of “7 Prisoners” makes good on its title by expanding the cast in a way that tests Mateus’ mettle in the most urgent manner imaginable. But its his relationship with Luca that ultimately gives the film its legs; unexpected detours into the gangster’s life inspire understanding as to how he got here, if not quite empathy for the man he’s become.

There are moments down the final stretch when the case could be made for calling this movie “6 Prisoners,” and others when “8 Prisoners” would seem to be a similarly fitting title. Its to Moratto’s immense credit that he lets us do our own math, the writer-director eventually bringing this story to a close with an unsparing honesty that refuses to insult all the other kids in Catanduva who are waiting for their chance in São Paulo, a city that waits for no one.

“7 Prisoners” premiered at the 2021 Venice Film Festival. Netflix will release it later this year.

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7 prisoners review: alexandre moratto's drama is chilling & powerful.

While often hard to watch, 7 Prisoners is an important film that dissects its characters and the bleak world they find themselves embroiled in.

7 Prisoners , from director Alexandre Moratto, is steeped in devastation and layers that punctuate the stark realities of laborers, power structures, and dynamics. Co-written by Moratto and Thayná Mantesso, the film, set in Brazil, is gruesome and bold, deeply nuanced and unrelenting in its exploration of power — who wields it, who is hurt by it, and how those at the very bottom of the rung can transition from the oppressed to the oppressor. While often hard to watch, 7 Prisoners is an important film that dissects its characters and the bleak world they find themselves embroiled in.

Mateus (Christian Malheiros) spends his days working the fields in the countryside. The 18-year-old lives with his mother and sisters, with big dreams to go to college and become an engineer. To make money to support his impoverished family, and to leave the field work behind for good, Mateus takes a job in São Paulo with three other young men — Ezequiel (Vitor Julian), Isaque (Lucas Oranmian), and Samuel (Bruno Rocha). They're tasked to work in a junkyard that immediately looks like a prison. The mattresses are dirty and dank, the area is surrounded by barbed wire fences, and their boss Luca (Rodrigo Santoro) carries a gun to keep them in line. Forced to strip copper and do other laborious work, Mateus quickly realize that they’re not allowed to leave and everything they need, including food, is a part of their debt that Luca tracks to ensure it’s paid off. And as Mateus learns the ropes and gets in with Luca, the lines between right, wrong, and power begin to blur.

Related: Belfast Review: Moving & Personal, Kenneth Branagh's Best Film In Years

7 Prisoners examines how even the oppressed can fall into systems of oppression if it means survival and how these very systems are set up to support those at the top no matter what. Mateus tries to leave his situation, but he’s met with threats and degradation; he and his friends try to fight back, successfully knocking out Luca at one point, but their families would get the brunt of the violence if they continued to rebel. For Mateus, the only way out from the bottom is to join its ranks, impressing Luca — who reveals quite a few things about his own past that give Mateus some pause — to ensure the safety of him and his family.

To that end, the film isn’t a feel-good movie about how these prisoners are set free, but an analysis of the oppressive systems that keep them in their place to appease the most powerful men at the top. 7 Prisoners is chilling, gripping, and deeply unsettling, peeling back the layers of Mateus’ situation as it escalates and reveals the despairing truth beneath. Within the confines of the junkyard, dreams are for the naive; Mateus’ goals in life have nowhere to go, trapped and abandoned for a different opportunity and way of life. It’s disheartening, powerful, and gut-wrenching all at once, with the film offering plenty of nuance and complexities in its story that will leave the audience thinking about its message for a long time.

The film's heaviness is unrelenting, but Moratto knows how important it is to convey. Meanwhile, the writing finds new ways to push the story forward without losing steam or becoming tedious, though it could have easily fallen into that trap. 7 Prisoners leans into hopelessness often, showing the skyscrapers of São Paulo looming over the barbed wired junkyard, as though a reminder of the freedom Mateus could have, only to learn it was never in reach. The cinematography by João Gabriel de Queiroz takes the film to new heights, showcasing a grim setting with muted, almost drab colors that work in tandem with the film’s themes and Mateus’ journey.

The film is elevated by Christian Malheiros' expressive and moving performance. His eyes say so much as they take in information, assess, and emote. Rodrigo Santoro, meanwhile, is utterly chilling as Luca, cold, violent, yet also nuanced. Both actors give their all and their relationship makes for a complicated, layered addition to the story being told in 7 Prisoners . It’s a film that is certainly a must-see, complex and emotionally devastating in its exploration of power and hierarchy.

Next: Tick, Tick... Boom! Review: Musical Adaptation Reminds Us Why Rent Was Better

7 Prisoners is now streaming on Netflix. The film is 93 minutes long and is rated R for language, some violence and a sexual reference.

Key Release Dates

7 prisoners.

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This socially conscious human-trafficking film implicates a broken society

“7 Prisoners,” a socially conscious thriller from Brazil about human trafficking, asks a question: What would you do in the situation that the film’s protagonists find themselves: trapped, with few choices, in a scenario that unfolds with the tension of possibility?

Although the film depicts the cyclical nature of crime and poverty, director and co-writer Alexandre Moratto has little interest in making a didactic message movie. Instead, he plunges viewers into the reality of a São Paulo junkyard, making no excuses for the desperate things his characters do, while somehow finding sympathy for all of them — even the seemingly monstrous ones.

A brief prologue suggests that there will be a clear line drawn between victim and perpetrator. We meet Mateus (Christian Malheiros), a farm boy who has left his family for the big city with the promise of a job in a salvage business and hopes of sending money home so his mother can stop working the fields. But shortly after arriving in São Paulo with three other wide-eyed young men, Mateus senses something is wrong. There is no employment contract to sign, no wages, and his shabby living quarters looks like a cage. Mateus connects the dots: He’s been lured into slavery, and his “boss” Luca (Rodrigo Santoro) will not let him leave until his “debt” is paid. Along with the other young teens on the cusp of manhood, Mateus immediately starts planning an escape.

At this point, “7 Prisoners” looks like it will become a battle of wills between Luca and the others. Mateus’s fellow prisoners are familiar hostage archetypes: Isaque (Lucas Oranmian) is a hothead who wants instant revenge, while the simple-minded Ezequiel (Vitor Julian) barely holds it together. But as the film continues, escape becomes less urgent, and the boys relax into a pattern. Mateus’s plan is to earn Luca’s trust, then spring into action, except Mateus does not anticipate something: with trust comes added responsibility and privilege. Earning a little bit more money and freedom, ultimately serving as Luca’s assistant, Mateus almost instantly becomes an object of the other boys’ resentment.

By shifting the perspective to Mateus’s guilt and emotional turmoil, Moratto shows us how nothing is simple in this grim situation. Filmmaker Fernando Meirelles, director of “ City of God ,” is a producer here, and “7 Prisoners” shares that Oscar-nominated gangster drama’s cinéma vérité sensibility. Except for shots of the São Paulo’s skyline — always framed from the ground upward, a metaphor for dreams of a better life — Moratto depicts the film’s setting and its surrounding slum with unhurried frankness. In one shocking sequence, Luca takes Mateus on a “work trip,” where the boy discovers how Luca is a cog in a larger machine. (This is where additional prisoners are introduced, explaining the film’s title.) Luca’s methods are insidious: By giving Mateus his confidence, he seduced his protege to do things he would never have previously dreamed of. And as Luca talks, there are hints that the older man may have been groomed in a similar way.

With six prisoners stuck in a cage, and Mateus as Lucas’s confidant, “7 Prisoners” becomes almost a grotesque buddy comedy between the two main characters. Santoro’s complex performance is key to this transition: Our perception of him changes from a one-dimensional sadist to a product of his environment, a man who does what he must to climb the social ladder. Malheiros, meanwhile, develops in the opposite direction, from deep sympathy for others to a proclivity for dehumanizing them. (The actor’s expressive face begins with wide-eyed fear, then calcifies into hardened anger.) Moratto never judges these characters, no matter what they do, because that would betray his larger point. There is no hope for Isaque, Ezequeiel and the others, so Mateus figures he shouldn’t have to suffer along with them.

The film’s poignant final moments have none of the ambiguity of its long middle section. If there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for Mateus, the fate of those less fortunate ensures that he will never forget the cost of his betrayal. “7 Prisoners” is an angry film, but Moratto, crucially, reserves his most intense judgment for an inhumane system, not the characters who are trapped by it, each in different ways.

R. At Landmark’s E Street Cinema; available Nov. 11 on Netflix. Contains crude language, some violence and a sexual reference. In Portuguese with subtitles. 94 minutes.

‘7 Prisoners’ Film Review: Brutal Brazilian Drama Examines Modern-Day Slavery and Exploitation

Rodrigo Santoro plays a cruel boss who’s merely part of a pyramid of economic abuse in this social-realist powerhouse

This review of “7 Prisoners” was first published on Sept. 6 after the film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Contrary to what its title might imply, director Alexandre Moratto’s sophomore feature “7 Prisoners” isn’t set in a correctional facility or during an armed conflict, but in the underbelly of urban Sao Paolo, Brazil. A lean, unflinching and acutely topical peek at modern-day slavery sold as an opportunity for economic advancement, this naturalistic thriller concerns a victim coerced into becoming a victimizer for survival.

Ripped from their rural hometowns with the promise of steady and well-remunerated work, a pack of young men without avenues for education head to the big city. They are neither the first nor the last, but merely part of a large operation. Mateus (Christian Malheiros), a Black 18-year-old, and three others arrive at a scrap-metal junkyard. A scruffy Rodrigo Santoro, a Hollywood regular back in his home country, plays the callous Luca, who welcomes them to their live-in positions stripping copper and sorting steel.

An innate leader, Mateus, the one in the group with higher career aspirations (he dreams of being a pilot), soon realizes Luca has no intention of paying any wages or letting them quit. They’re now his property. Grimy and sweltering, the spaces — including an actual cell holding them behind bars — and their disheveled appearance convey a spiritual decay. Bodily pain occurs, but Moratto and co-writer Thayná Mantesso (who previously collaborated on Moratto’s Spirit Award–winning “Socrates”) primarily and potently concentrate on the teens’ ravaged mental state upon their discovery that they were tricked into forced labor.

Naturally gifted, Malheiros (who played a homeless gay teen in “Socrates”) exudes an irate fortitude in his demands for fairness. His face contorts slightly and his brow furrows when he must swallow his pride, fearing violent retaliation. Malheiros’ instinctive fury never diminishes, even when we can read Mateus’ ambivalent thoughts that cross his mind when presented with the chance of futile “freedom.”

Though he tries to bargain on their collective behalf, Mateus’ growing trust of and favor with their captor causes infighting with his fellow hostages, particularly a desperate Isaque (Lucas Oranmian). The chains that keep them from escaping are invisible, but terrifying — the very real threat that their families will sustain physical punishment or worse. Through his frazzled lead, Moratto slowly pulls back the curtain on the systems that profit off of human trafficking, the collusion of those in power, and the devastating notion that there’s no way out for those deemed disposable: the poor, the illiterate, the foreign.

Sticking to the same verité aesthetic as in “Socrates,” where a vivacious moving camera commanded the images, Moratto reteams with cinematographer João Gabriel de Queiroz. While devoid of overt stylization, the director infuses the harsh account with a splash of lyricism charged with striking subtext in a montage that observes endless electrical cables, which utilize the copper Mateus and company clean for it to be reused. The cumulative sequence jumps from that initial material representation of their labor to transmission towers, and eventually to a sea of illuminated buildings at night. Sao Paolo, like every other major city, is a metropolis powered on exploitation.

That directors Fernando Meirelles and Ramin Bahrani have boarded Moratto’s two features so far as executive producers seems appropriate. Parallels between those artists’ focus on the marginalized and Moratto’s own explorations on the subject are easy to draw. With “7 Prisoners,” the young director further demonstrates he is a worthy heir of this storytelling niche.

Tightly written to great thematic success, up until its burning final shot, the screenplay is peppered with moments of cautious levity. Still, the oppressive truth remains that there are few ways out for people considered disposable, other than climbing on the backs of those even weaker or becoming part of the vicious machinery of unchecked capitalism. Those are rather heavy contemplations that Moratto handles with unsentimental sharpness.

A wickedly impressive Santoro, stripped of all movie-star allure for a role that taps into a believable crudeness, portrays a constantly mutating power struggle with Mateus. The more the latter climbs the ladder towards some independence, leaving his comrades behind, the more their paths align. No real friendship can exist between the two, but there’s a Stockholm Syndrome–like rapport. But by this point, the adolescent has witnessed and been involuntarily complicit in unscrupulous acts affecting more than just his former peers.

And just when it seems Luca might be reduced to a one-dimensional stock villain, Moratto expands our view of this terrifying picture of the cyclical and perennial nature of the monstrous abuse these vulnerable young men endure. There are tiers of power in this pyramid of horrors, and Luca is just one floor higher than them; he is just another pawn himself, serving his own masters and dispensing trickle-down brutality. For the illusion of upward mobility to be feasible for someone like Mateus, he must first devour others.

As he skillfully peels the layers of such overwhelming social ills, Moratto commits to the cruel reality avoiding a resolution based on wishful thinking. Mateus’ victimhood never comes into question, but the inner turmoil that self-preservation carries quite literally leaves a mark. Clasping his artistic maw, Moratto’s concise firecracker of a movie is straightforward in its soul-crushing blows and an essential piece of social-realist cinema for our times.

“7 Prisoners” premieres on Netflix November 2021.

Review: Gripping performances fuel gritty, real-world struggle of ‘7 Prisoners’

A man and a teenage boy walk away from a van in the movie “7 Prisoners.”

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The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic . Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials .

At the start of writer-director Alexandre Moratto ’s social realist melodrama “7 Prisoners” (co-written with Thayná Mantesso), a hardworking young man named Mateus (Christian Malheiros) leaves his small village with a handful of others to go to São Paulo, where they’ve all been promised steady work in a junkyard and more money and future opportunities than they could possibly imagine. But within days of arriving, these kids find themselves locked in a Spartan barracks, left with no wages, few meals and an exhausting schedule.

“7 Prisoners” is part of the long tradition of movies, plays and novels that call attention to real-world problems — in this case, human trafficking and exploitation. Two of the producers, Ramin Bahrani and Fernando Meirelles , have made a fair number of these films, including “99 Homes,” “The White Tiger” and “City of God” between them.

Moratto has also made one before: his 2018 debut, “Sócrates,” starring Malheiros as an impoverished teenager trying to scrape by on pennies while also dealing with the usual adolescent angst. The key to Moratto’s work so far is that he ties whatever issue he’s exploring to one finely shaded character, who is more than just the social problem he represents.

In the case of Mateus in “7 Prisoners,” he’s a smart and good-hearted kid who knows how to play the angles. Once it’s clear that he and his bunkmates will be risking their own lives and the livelihoods of their families if they try to escape, Mateus starts looking for ways to curry favor with their tyrannical boss, Luca ( Rodrigo Santoro ), in hopes of improving everyone’s lot.

The movie’s plot is a little thin, and its message quite blunt. The more Mateus cozies up to Luca, the more he realizes that both he and his captor are caught up in a system that thrives by pitting working folks against each other while insulating the powerful from the inhumane ways they run their businesses.

But while “7 Prisoners” doesn’t pack many surprises, it is remarkably well drawn, featuring gripping performances and a vividly squalid setting. It captures the hopelessness of these men, trapped in a city where even the authorities who might help have no idea they exist — and no incentive for finding them.

'7 Prisoners'

In Portuguese with English subtitles Rated: R, for language, some violence and a sexual reference Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes Playing: Starts Nov. 5, Landmark Westwood; available Nov. 11 on Netflix

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But this natural leader will have tough choices to make in a tense drama with elements of a thriller. Much of the tension comes in the scenes with Luca. Santoro puts in a layered performance as the man who’s clearly the villain, but who is also revealed to be loving and supportive of his own family. There are several co-incidental parallels with the Venice competition film La Caja/The Box , as this shows the cold-blooded decisions Luca has made in order to look after his own. This is a dog-eat-dog world, and there is apparently no limit to the lengths Luca will go to in order to survive.

While the setting is very specific — and dark — some of the dynamics in 7 Prisoners have a universal relatability. The boss is using his power to intimidate the workers, and becomes both threatened and opportunistic when he discovers one of his staff is smarter than he is. When this guy gets promoted, jealousy is rife and loyalties are torn.

Malheiros is excellent as Mateus, a sympathetic hero who also has some common ground with Tim Robbins’ character in The Shawshank Redemption . He’s a clever, wrongly imprisoned man who must strategize and play the long game in order to have a hope of escape. The perils that could await Mateus are worse, of course: Luca carries a gun and knows exactly where all his enslaved workers’ families live. He manages to keep them in line with the threat of destroying the one thing everyone cares about: family. Money and food may be necessities, but family provides the motivation.

Brazilian-American filmmaker Moratto proved his instinctive understanding of Brazil’s low-income communities with the terrific Socrates , which was shortlisted for Brazil’s official Academy Award entry. 7 Prisoners establishes him firmly as a talented filmmaker telling important stories from the region — and it’s as engaging as it is depressingly, brutally educational.

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Netflix’s ‘7 Prisoners’ Is a Harrowing Tale of Modern Slavery

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7 Prisoners

The fingerprints of producer Ramin Bahrani are all over Alexandre Moratto’s 7 Prisoners , a positively Dickensian social realist drama set in the urban underbelly of contemporary Brazil. Fans of the Iranian-American director’s works like 99 Homes and The White Tiger will find themselves rapt by this searing variation on the ruthlessness required to rise in today’s cutthroat, corrupt economy. It’s a searing indictment of the systems that govern upward mobility – or lack thereof – as experienced and felt through the fully human experience of protagonist Mateus (Christian Malheiros).

Moratto, like Bahrani, finds the perfect vantage point for the brokenness of global enterprise: the middle manager’s false consciousness. Mateus leaves his rural home for contract work in the sprawl of São Paulo with the intention of sending back monetary support for them. He’s not alone in this pursuit of prosperity, joining a handful of other strapping young men to chase employment opportunities. The garage stripping cars and wires run by the iron fist of Luca (Rodrigo Santoro, familiar to non-Brazilian audiences from Love Actually and TV’s Lost ) offers them work, food, shelter … along with a crash course in labor exploitation.

At the first sign of questioning over the timing of their pay, Luca cracks the whip and flexes his draconian power to stifle any dissent in the ranks. He holds the purse strings and, thus, all the power. Like a contemporary Fagin, Luca squelches their will for rebellion by reminding them just how much of their livelihoods – and that of their families – he holds in their hands. The threat is both physical and psychological. And when the boys try to escape, he does not hesitate to flex the muscle of how the police are on the side of business interest rather than justice.

While the brutality and barbarism of the opening act of 7 Prisoners might appear to set the stage for a parade of miserabilism, Moratto has something else in mind for Mateus. It’s here when he begins to zoom out a bit and expose the mechanics of the economic game. Luca seeks to maintain control over the group by pitting them against one another, convincing them that their flourishing can only come at the expense of the others. Mateus accedes, determining that the only way to beat the game is to join it.

He quickly observes the benefits of complicity, instantly gaining preferential treatment and rising up to lord over the very people he entered the garage alongside. Soon enough, he even gets to select some dubiously sourced laborers for the business himself. The villainous Luca even begins to show a different side of himself to a newly compliant employee, showering new privileges, responsibilities, and even some kindness upon his apparent protégé.

7 Prisoners is not out to excuse Luca, but Moretto does try to understand what drives a former product of the slums to exercise such hostility towards these young men attempting a similar trajectory. As the film sheds greater light on the structural dynamics of the garage’s operation, the incentive structure becomes clear – and it rewards their unblinkered pursuit of profits over the well-being of people. Even Luca has a boss to whom he must answer, and that feeling of possessing some modicum of power within a dehumanizing system is an alluring illusion of control that can rot away at one’s empathetic senses. The message is unmistakable: submit to the system to be rewarded with success.

The city of São Paulo begins a shining beacon of hope to Mateus; when he’s up making repairs on a rooftop, he stares up at the sprawl of skyscrapers in wonder. But it begins to take on a more complex sheen when he learns what really powers the population’s opulent lifestyle. “Look at your work, all through the city,” Luca tells Mateus as they drive under the vast patchwork of wires connecting the masses. In a film defined by an unwavering social realist aesthetic, Moretto breaks his own rule and indulges in an expressionistic montage of the city’s arterial framework. The invisibility of exploitation that makes urban life possible becomes undeniably present thanks to this sequence, a startling visualization of the themes brought to light by 7 Prisoners . For a genre mostly defined by prioritizing content over form, this metaphor marks a welcome change of pace.

While Moretto might not possess the visual or narrative mastery of his benefactor Bahrani, the film is a notable leap forward from his well-intentioned if clunkily executed debut Socrates (also starring Malheiros). He’s clearly got a knack for observing the way institutions imprint themselves on individuals, constricting their decisions and limiting their dreams. But most importantly, he never loses touch with the humanity at the center of the story – a focus without which the film might seem just as cold and unsparing as the systems it so damningly indicts. Moretto is clear-eyed about the compromises Mateus must make to stay afloat and compassionate enough to see the full range of his character throughout.

Marshall Shaffer is a New York-based freelance film journalist. In addition to Decider, his work has also appeared on Slashfilm, Slant, Little White Lies and many other outlets. Some day soon, everyone will realize how right he is about Spring Breakers.

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7 prisoners, common sense media reviewers.

Gritty Brazilian drama has language, violence.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Poverty, hardship, and hopelessness can all push p

Men who find themselves in a dire situation band t

The film is set in Brazil. Characters are racially

Men and women are enslaved and trafficked. Men are

Men taunt each other with references to their girl

"F--k," "mother--ker," "s--t," "s--thole," "chicke

People smoke cigarettes and drink beer and liquor.

Positive Messages

Poverty, hardship, and hopelessness can all push people to go against their own values and principles in order to survive.

Positive Role Models

Men who find themselves in a dire situation band together to help each other, but their solidarity doesn't last long. One gets violent, and another turns on the group when he receives special privileges. Human traffickers treat people like goods, depriving them of basic rights and handling them violently. A politician is corrupt. Mothers love their kids. One young man is illiterate and doesn't know his own age.

Diverse Representations

The film is set in Brazil. Characters are racially diverse and some secondary characters come from other countries in Latin America.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Men and women are enslaved and trafficked. Men are treated violently, punched, stabbed, burned, hit over the head, threatened at gunpoint, nearly strangled (once with a plastic bag over the head), and threatened in a variety of ways. Their families back home are threatened with violence, and one woman is seen in distress in a photograph. A man tells another he could be stabbed in the eyelid while he's sleeping. A man fakes a seizure.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Men taunt each other with references to their girlfriends and mothers "banging," "sleeping around," and "sucking off" men. Two characters kiss on a dance floor.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"F--k," "mother--ker," "s--t," "s--thole," "chickens--t," "ass," "a--hole," "badass," "goddamn," "damn," "hell," "son of a bitch," "bastard," "coward," "idiot," "scumbag," "hick." The film was reviewed in Portuguese with English subtitles.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

People smoke cigarettes and drink beer and liquor. One bar scenes ends with drunken characters, and a man passes out.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that the Brazilian film 7 Prisoners (7 Prisioneiros) is a drama about human trafficking that has violence and language. Four men from the rural countryside sign up for work in the city with the promise of pulling their families out of poverty, only to find themselves essentially enslaved and put to hard labor in a junkyard by a pair of violent men. Some of the men turn violent themselves, and other scenes show how men and women are bought and sold across the city for hard labor. The film reflects how poverty, hardship, and hopelessness can all push people into dire situations and questionable behavior. People are punched, stabbed, burnt, hit over the head, threatened at gunpoint, and nearly strangled (one with a plastic bag over the head). Their families back home are threatened with violence as well. People smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol, once ending in a man passing out. Language in the English subtitles includes "f--k," "mother--ker," "s--t," "s--thole," "chickens--t," "ass," "a--hole," "badass," "goddamn," "damn," "hell," "son of a bitch," "bastard," "coward," "idiot," "scumbag," "hick," "banging," "sleeping around," and "sucking off." Characters are racially diverse and some secondary characters come from other countries in Latin America. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

Mateus (Christian Malheiros) and three fellow young men from the impoverished Brazilian countryside accept work in Sao Paulo, leaving their homes and families behind in 7 PRISONERS. What they don't know is that the boss of the junkyard where they'll work, Luca (Rodrigo Santoro), traffics in men and will quickly imprison them on the preface that they owe him money for food, rent, and transportation. Police and other locals are aware of the scheme and have threatened the men's families back home, making escape impossible. The men band together and Mateus strikes a deal with Luca to up productivity in return for letting them leave after six months. Instead, Luca takes Mateus under his wing and slowly converts him into an assistant.

Is It Any Good?

Formidable performances and a heart-wrenching story drive this disturbing drama from Brazil. The dynamics of the enslaved men in 7 Prisoners offer a study in human psychology. We see how slyly the foreman takes the smartest among them under his wing, slowly turning him against his own former companions. Rodrigo Santoro infuses Luca with a pulsing fury just beneath the surface, while Christian Malheiros' Mateus exudes a credible blend of cleverness and confusion. Their moods are matched by a cinematography bathed in shady blues and greens, punctuated by starkly sunlit cityscapes and junkyard scenes.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the decisions Mateus makes in 7 Prisoners . Why doesn't he try to escape or double-cross Luca?

Does human trafficking happen in real life? Where could you go for more information?

Why are the men tempted into these jobs? What's important about Luca taking their documents and not giving them a contract?

How is Sao Paulo depicted in contrast to the rural countryside seen at the beginning of the film?

Movie Details

On DVD or streaming : November 12, 2021
Cast : Rodrigo Santoro , Christian Malheiros , Vitor Julian
Director : Alexandre Moratto
Inclusion Information : Latino actors, Black actors
Studio : Netflix
Genre : Drama
Run time : 93 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : Language, some violence, and sexual references.
Last updated : February 17, 2023

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7 Prisoners Rodrigo Santoro Christian Malheiros Feat

‘7 Prisoners’ Is The Gritty, Brazilian Answer To ‘White Tiger’ And ‘Parasite’

Early in Alexandre Moratto’s new film, 7 Prisoners , 18-year-old Mateus attends a small going away party thrown for him by his family. He scolds his mother for buying him a new shirt worth “a month of groceries.” He’s about to leave their poverty-stricken corrugated shack in the sticks for a new life in the big city. Soon a smiling man with a gold watch hands Mateus’s mother a wad of cash and congratulates Mateus for the big opportunity upon which he’s about to embark.

Would you believe, that what Mateus finds isn’t exactly what he was promised?

Like White Tiger , another foreign-language exploration of class released on Netflix earlier this year, 7 Prisoners was produced by Ramin Bahrani (along with City of God director Fernando Meirelles and others) and finds a tidy metaphor for capitalism in miniature. Somewhere along the van ride between his hometown and Sao Paulo, Mateus (Christian Malheiros, a pitch-perfect combination of boy and man) and the handful of fellow migrant workers traveling with him essentially become stateless persons. They have their passports and cell phones confiscated, work long hours scrounging scrap metal, and the man with the gold watch disappears, never to be seen again, replaced by a gun-toting, shark-eyed overseer named Luca ( Rodrigo Santoro from Westworld ). Luca promises retribution if they try to escape.

Movies that are merely about how sad or how brutal poverty is (or, God forbid, how beautiful) are pretty boring. The beauty of 7 Prisoners , written by Thayná Mantesso and Alexandre Moratto, is that it’s much more concerned with how exploitation actually works. 7 Prisoners is at first a prison break narrative, with Mateus and company carefully studying their surroundings and Luca’s behavior searching for the hole in their defense that will allow them to escape. Yet soon it transforms into a story about the process by which the charismatic yet evil Luca tries to convert Mateus from slave to overseer. As Amsterdam says of Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York , “It’s a funny feeling being taken under the wing of a dragon. It’s warmer than you’d think.”

Luca, a hard-drinking misanthrope who does seem to have some humanity buried deep within him, is a wonderfully memorable character. Santoro manages Luca’s push-pull between charity and wrath, sympathy and punishment perfectly. Meanwhile, you can see how this process to turn subjugants into participants in the process of exploitation works diabolically well. Remove all hope, dole out the occasional crumbs of security in exchange for obedience, and provide constant and vivid examples of what life could look like without those crumbs. “Well, I guess it could be worse” is the mantra of the permanent underclass.

7 Prisoners is a bit like Deep Cover for slave capitalism. It maintains constant suspense, as we wait to see what’s more important to Mateus, his personal advancement or his loyalty to his friends and family. White Tiger and, to an even greater extent, Parasite and Sorry To Bother You used artifice and the fantastic to craft endings that were symbolic and true to the material, but also cathartic and edifying. 7 Prisoners , texturally rich, suspense-filled, and strong on memorable characters as it is, doesn’t manage this trick nearly as well. In the end, it doesn’t feel like much of a trick at all, content to be merely insightful rather than exciting.

7 Prisoners refuses to cheat, almost to a fault. (It’s art, you’re allowed to cheat a little ). That makes it slightly disappointing in the end, but not enough to undo what an adroit snapshot it is of the way exploitation thwarts organization and dulls its opposition.

‘7 Prisoners’ hits Netflix November 11. Vince Mancini is on Twitter . You can check out his film review archive here .

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7 Prisoners review – profound and intimate look at modern slavery

Brazilian filmmaker Alexandre Moratto’s spare and enthralling social drama offers a lot more than just a story of suffering

17 Sep 2021

A film which transcends its social importance to be an accessible and enthralling look at the human toll of modern slavery, 7 Prisoners is a 2021 highlight. Second-time Brazilian director Alexandre Moratto takes a close look at its 40 million victims worldwide with an intimate story of an innocent group of villagers who find themselves caught up in an exploitative big city scam. The result is profound.

Starring a sparkling Christian Malheiros as Mateus, 7 Prisoners follows a group of four teens who ditch provincial life to earn more in São Paulo. The transport is free, accommodation paid for, advance cash already handed over. Mateus knows his ageing mother can’t (and shouldn’t) continue with the farm work. This is his route to providing – and becoming a man.

But it quickly becomes clear the promise of enrichment is a false one. Machiavellian boss Luca (Rodrigo Santoro) finds any excuse not to pay the group, any fee to take out of their wages. When he finally locks the door one night, Mateus and his pals know they have got themselves into something darker than they could’ve imagined.

Despite its loftier ambition to show the human side of modern slavery, 7 Prisoners is at its most gripping when Moratto focuses on the group dynamic. Mateus’s initial optimism – and later guilt – causes tension with fellow inmates Ezequial (Vitor Julian) Isaque (Lucas Oranmian). The innocence of their early friendship is twisted by Luca, whose punitive demands force the group to turn against each other. Their solidarity is soon extinguished and any signs of collective dissent impossible.

This Steinbeckian idea that the suffering of a group divides its victims as much as it brings them together underpins the bleak view of labour and exploitation presented by the film. It’s no schmaltz-fest. Yet perhaps its greatest achievement is to blend that coherent political perspective with a moving human story in order to illustrate it. Plus, the fact that 7 Prisoners was produced by Netflix and clocks in at just over 90 minutes means it has a good chance of actually finding a global audience. It really deserves to.

7 Prisoners will be released on Netflix in November.

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REVIEW: “7 Prisoners” (2021)

Brazilian-American filmmaker Alexandre Moratto turned several heads at this year’s Venice International Film Festival with the world premiere of his piercing new film “7 Prisoners”. Set mostly in the backstreets of São Paulo, Brazil, the film sees Moratto and his co-writer Thayna Mantesso delving into the darker corners of the city and country to tackle some real-world issues that should shake us to our cores.

“7 Prisoners” is a tough-minded movie with a very no-nonsense approach to its subject matter. At the same time, Moratto makes sure that the human element remains firmly front-and-center. He does so through the character of Mateus played by the charismatic Brazilian newcomer Christian Malheiros. Mateus’ story is a painful and (hopefully) infuriating eye-opener that pulls back the veil on the abhorrent practices of slave labor, sweatshops, and human trafficking. These are horrors we tend to turn a blind eye to, mainly because they all too often contribute to our comforts. Moratto sets out to wake us up to the realities of what’s happening in São Paulo and across the world.

The film opens in the rural Brazilian countryside where Mateus lives with his mother and two sisters. They are a loving group but they’ve had a hard life, doing their best to survive with what little they have. Mateus’ mother has labored to provide for her children, but years of low-paying farmwork has taken its toll. So 18-year-old Mateus jumps at the opportunity to go the city and do some contract work to support his family. In the film’s most tender and sobering scenes, Mateus’ mother gives him a new shirt for his trip. It’s hardly anything fancy, but its worth a month’s groceries to them. A van comes by to pick up Mateus and, along with three other area boys, he’s taken five hours away to São Paulo.

Moratto does a great job putting us in the shoes of these four young men. Not only by showing us where they’re from, but also during the van ride through the city. Their wide-eyed excitement as they’re driven through the bustling São Paulo sets us up for the unsettling reality that awaits them.

The driver drops them off at an inner-city scrapyard ran by a man named Luca (played by an excellent Rodrigo Santoro). The shady and evasive Luca gets the boys settled and gives them money to go out and enjoy themselves before their first day of work. But when he collects all of their IDs the next morning, we know this isn’t going to go the way the boys anticipated. In fact it’s much worse. Mateus and his friends find themselves caught in the gears of a modern-day slave system, one that’s driven and protected by people with enormous power.

Moratto’s pacing is near perfect, shrewdly moving the story from point to point while pausing at just the right moments to uncoil the crumbling emotions of his characters. Mateus is especially compelling, caught in a no-win situation and eventually forced to make impossible decisions that will have painful repercussions regardless of what he chooses. To stress the point of his film, Moratto slyly gives us the occasional shot of the city’s bustling streets full of citizens freely walking about their normal days. It offers a sharp contrast to the cruel forced labor happening right under their noses.

With a bold and clear-eyed perspective, “7 Prisoners” offers a brutally honest challenge to a society’s apathy towards some well-documented abuses. Alexandre Moratto does a good job pulling us into his dark and ugly world that’s made all the more troubling by the fact that it’s very, very real. Great performances from Santoro and Malheiros anchor this revealing feature that’s not only a good pickup for Netflix, but a great opportunity for an important story to be told. “7 Prisoners” is now streaming on Netflix.

VERDICT – 4 STARS

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