Pixote

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Pixote

1981,

2h 7m,

Drama

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Watchlist

Watchlist

94%

16 Reviews

Tomatometer

93%

2,500+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

94%

Tomatometer

16 Reviews

93%

Popcornmeter

2,500+ Ratings

Homeless adolescent Pixote (Fernando Ramos da Silva) finds himself thrown into a juvenile prison in a roundup of São Paulo's street children. The prison is a nightmarish world where sadistic guards torture and murder the young inmates. Fleeing with a transgendered fellow inmate named Lilica (Jorge Julião) and her boyfriend, Dito (Gilberto Moura), Pixote journeys to the streets of Rio de Janeiro and becomes enmeshed in an underworld of drugs and violence.

Pauline Kael

The New Yorker

Sep 18, 2023

Pixote is good enough to touch greatness; it restores your excitement about the confusing pleasures that movies can give.

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Joe Pollack

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Nov 11, 2021

It's a fictional tale, obviously based on truth i and it's one of the strongest, but most depressing films of recent years.

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David Mermelstein

Wall Street Journal

Oct 1, 2020

A tour-de-force from Brazil that brought its director and co-writer, Héctor Babenco, international celebrity. Forty years on, the film packs no less a gut punch than on its initial release.

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Eleanor Ringel Cater

Saporta Report (Atlanta)

Oct 9, 2023

An unsparing, unsentimental look...

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Michael Bronski

Gay Community News (Boston)

Aug 19, 2022

The strength of Pixote is that it allows children a freedom of will and autonomy they are rarely granted — they are not “kids” but people who happen to be younger and smaller.

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Oct 3, 2020

3.5/4

Utterly depressing and utterly devastating.

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Finn S

Jan 5, 2019

A drammatic and touching portrait of Brazil, where a child (Pixote) has to grow fast in order to survive in the orphanage where he lives first and later on the street when he escapes from the istitution. Absolutely amazing!

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Hermione M

Oct 23, 2017

If not quite a life-changing film, it is one of the films I've seen that has most change the way I think about life. It came at time when Brazilian cinema was ready to transition from the folkloric to the art house, and informed and/or inspired dozens of Latin American directors. Emotionally powerful and resonant story, fantastic actors.

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Anakin S

Apr 30, 2017

Movie follows a group of teenagers and Pixote a ten year old from a juvinele center to the streets of Brazil. Extremely good. I can't figure out how I've never seen this before. Or heard of it. Recommended by Harmony Korine on this website I figured I'd watch and I loved it. The ending is heartbreaking.

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Hermione R

Nov 1, 2016

A hard-hitting portrayal of the miserable childhood faced by countless minors in Brazil who don't see any way ahead of them except a life of crime, and it is even more painful and tragic when we consider that its main actor was murdered by the police in real life six years after it was made.

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Hector Babenco

Director

Fernando Ramos da Silva

Pixote

Marília Pêra

Sueli

Gilberto Moura

Dito

Jorge Julião

Lilica

Edilson Lino

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Synopsis

Homeless adolescent Pixote (Fernando Ramos da Silva) finds himself thrown into a juvenile prison in a roundup of São Paulo's street children. The prison is a nightmarish world where sadistic guards torture and murder the young inmates. Fleeing with a transgendered fellow inmate named Lilica (Jorge Julião) and her boyfriend, Dito (Gilberto Moura), Pixote journeys to the streets of Rio de Janeiro and becomes enmeshed in an underworld of drugs and violence.

Director: Hector Babenco
Producer: Paulo Francini, José Pinto, Hector Babenco
Screenwriter: Hector Babenco, Jorge Durán, José Louzeiro
Distributor: Unifilms, Facets
Production Co: Embrafilme, HB Filmes
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Brazilian Portuguese
Release Date (Theaters): May 5, 1981, Original
Runtime: 2h 7m
Sound Mix: Mono

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