In 1997, before the visit of the pope to Rio de Janeiro, Captain Nascimento from BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) is assigned to eliminate the risks of the drug dealers in a dangerous slum nearby where the pope intends to be lodged.
Nineteen people with differing degrees of visual impairment – from mild nearsightedness to total blindness – discuss how they see themselves, how they see others and how they perceive the world. Unusual images, of burning trees or empty deserts, link the interviews, which vary from deep to funny to poetic.
Maiquél has lost a bet and dyed his hair blond. This seemingly innocuous event triggers a head-on collision with destiny in which he goes from nobody to hero to outlaw — all in 24 hours.
Lisbela is a young woman who loves going to the movies. Leléu is a con man, going from town to town selling all sort of things and performing as master of ceremonies for some cheesy numbers, such as the woman who gets transformed into a gorilla. He gets involved with Linaura, a sexy and beautiful woman who happens to be the wife of the most frightening hitman of the place. The hitman finds out his wife's affair and goes after Leléu, who has to leave in a hurry. In another town, he meets and falls instantly in love with Lisbela, who is engaged to Douglas, a hillbilly who tries hard to pass for a cosmopolitan Rio de Janeiro dweller.
Querô is an orphan teenager, living alone near the docks in Santos, Brazil. His mother, a prostitute, died when he was a baby, and he was raised in the bordello where she worked. Believing he rules his own destiny, he refuses to compromise with anyone else, the corrupt policemen always chasing him, the oppressive discipline in the juvenile institution Febem, or the drug dealers who try to lure him. But this independence has a price.
Célio Rocha believes he was assigned by God Himself a difficult mission: to persuade his childhood friend Otávio Sabóia, a corrupt entrepeneur in the construction business, to give away all his possessions to the poor.
Benjamim Zambraia is a lonely man, a famous model with a tragic past. Some time in the past, he showed some officers the exact location where the woman he loved was hiding with her guerilla lover. As a result, the two were killed. One day, he casually meets a woman who looks very much like his former love, and this fact changes his life. Could she be the daughter of his great love? Or her reincarnation?
A documentary on three families struggling to survive in Brazil.
Over the rubble and debris of contemporary cities, the new urban warriors improvise daily on streets and ruins.
