Acts of Men

Acts of Men

"Acts of Men" should have been a film about the daily lives of massacre survivors in Brazil. Everything was planned for us to start shooting in April 2005. But reality did not wait. On the last day of March, exactly one month before shooting was scheduled to begin, things changed: A terrible massacre took place in Baixada Fluminense, near the city of Rio de Janeiro. Twenty-nine people were killed by death squad, the largest massacre in the history of Rio de Janeiro. The killers are extermination groups made up of policemen who work in the area, and who are involved in extortions, kidnapping, drug dealing and homicide. This has been going on since the 1950s, but it has never been as extreme as it is today.

The film is organized in four parts: Daily Life in Baixada Fluminense shows footage of residents of the town that suggests it was shot before the massacre; in reality, it was shot afterwards. The Massacre describes the carnage and the feelings it provoked. Death Squads deals with the killing commandos in the area and includes an interview with a professional assassin. Daily Life 2 shows the people in Baixada Fluminense and their attempts to process what they have experienced.

Source: 56. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (catalogue)