Carol Caetano

Two people fight for survival in a captivity in which the only contact with the outside world is a small gap in the room where they are locked. A short film made for the "Noite de Kino 2023" project of the São Paulo International Short Film Festival - Curta Kinoforum.

Vera and Alda are neighbors and work at the same school: Vera is a teacher, Alda a cleaner. The link between them is Joana, Alda’s granddaughter and Vera’s student. Vera is trapped in a violent relationship with her boyfriend. Alda, for her part, begins studying again and soon realizes she’s also in an abusive relationship: her son, Dinho, won’t let her focus on herself and insists that she take care of his daughter, Joana. Vera and Alda find in their friendship a safe space to share their pain and desires, slowly shifting the power dynamics at home and at work, but they also have to face new risks.

Hammurabi tells the story of Vitão, a boy who works as a delivery boy. Outraged by the poor working conditions, Vitão decides to steal one of the deliveries from the Arab restaurant Hammurabi. This seemingly simple robbery triggers a chain reaction when a dealer receives a message to fetch packages of drugs from the same building as Vitão. Due to a simple typo, the dealer ends up going to Vitão’s apartment and putting the boy in the middle of a much bigger mess than he could have imagined.

On the industrial outskirts of São Paulo’s ABC region, Maria Domingas, an exhausted factory worker, breaks away from her routine for the first time: instead of going straight home, she stops at a bar. There, under the weight of the silence and oppression of her time, an encounter opens a mysterious window to tenderness and humanity in her life.

Gabriel is surprised by the arrival of Júlia, his ex-girlfriend, who goes to his house to pick up some belongings that were left there. For him it's a chance to try to talk to her, for her it's just a necessary evil. However, the conversation between the couple makes them both realize that many other immaterial things remain even after the end of a relationship. What to do with these things?