Salve Geral

The widow piano teacher Lúcia (Andréa Beltrão) and her unemployed teenage son Rafa (Lee Thalor) move to a poor neighborhood in the periphery of São Paulo after the bankrupting of her pension plan. Rafa a.k.a. Pilot tells his mother that he is going to the movie theater with his friend Beto, but they go to a street racing instead in a car that Beto has stolen in the workshop where he works. While seeking the documents, they find a revolver in the glove compartment. When Rafa hits the car of a black man in a maneuver, the man shoots Beto on the chest. Rafa takes the gun and accidentally kills a girl. He is sent to prison and during one visit, Lúcia meets the influent lawyer Ruiva (Denise Weinberg) and they befriend each other. Ruiva, who is one of the head of the criminal organization "Party", offers money to the needy Lúcia; in return, she asks Lúcia to help her in minor wrongdoings, such as bringing illegal stuff to the inmates. Meanwhile the leadership of the powerful criminal organization has internal fights; when they are sent to a maximum security prison, they order rebellions in the prisons and havoc on the streets on the Mother's Day to intimidate the authorities. Lúcia gets a remission to Rafa for this day, but the teenager now has obligations with the Party.

"Salve Geral" is a fictional story based on a true event. On May, 12th 2006, São Paulo was submitted to a violent attack organized by the criminal organization PCC ("Primeiro Commando da Capital" meaning First Command of the Capital). In this date, the criminals killed several police officers; attacked police stations and police cars; set on fire many buses, banks and shops; promoted rebellions in the penitentiaries. The chaotic São Paulo had the greatest traffic jam of its history, with the frightened population trying to return home with reduced public means of transportation. The director and writer Sérgio Resende used these tragic and violent events and the hopeless reality of a city that is hostage of criminals and criminal organization associated to the known corruption to develop a very realistic movie that is surprisingly underrated in IMDb, with great performances highlighting Andréa Beltrão and Denise Weinberg in the lead roles. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Salve Geral" ("General Message")

Note: "Salve" in Portuguese literally means save, but in the criminal slang of São Paulo, it means message.

Brazilian cinema has some history of attempts to deconstruct traditional canons of cinema as a school of consumption, alongside with big problems to finance anything that is not imitative of blockbusting soothing products for mass consumption. In the meanwhile, globo filmes pray in the lines of the orthodox confession of faith, and finance things like ... salve geral. What is seen is a bad plot composition spoken in Portuguese. Bad guys vs good guys. I imagine that things such as this are happening in other cinema schools, what doesn't add to the understanding of how Brazil - or Brazilian prisional system really works. If you put a Bruce willis here and some denzel washington there, you may even generate an Oscar-winning piece of ...work. Facts are correct, but badly narrated, this is it.

"Salve Geral" tells a fictional story about a real event that took place in São Paulo in 2006 when several attacks happened in police stations, banks and riots in prisons. Many policeman's and other people were killed in a striking and unexpected demonstration that the prisoners could take control of the city inside bars. Director Sergio Rezende ("Guerra De Canudos") used those events as a background to the story of a desperate mother trying to save her young son out of the imminent danger.

Lúcia (Andréa Beltrão) is a piano teacher, widower, and mother of the teenage Rafa (Lee Thalor). Rafa gets involved with bad companies and one day he kills a innocent person and is sent to prison. His mother is gonna try to do everything she can to make him get out of prison, starting a "friendship" relationship with Ruiva (Denise Weinberg), a lawyer who works for a criminal group. Lúcia is helping them too by taking messages and cellphones to inmates inside of the prisons. She even starts a love relationship with a leader of the group named Professor (Bruno Perillo). While she tries so hard to make things better for her son, the group is planning an attack that can make the city break. Worst: Rafa was approached by this group.

I reduced the plot because it's basically this. Now here comes the review, the critic exam. It's a good movie but if the writers used the real story (even with this story of the mom and her son) it could be a better movie. I remember how the events happened and many things portrayed here are exaggerated, things very over the line. The city broke down for a few days, some schools didn't work, but it didn't have curfews, no one was thrown out of the roof like it was shown in a riot scene, some firefighters were killed and this isn't mentioned in the film.

Other point to be noticed: Brazilian film critics were too harsh with this film, explaining that the whole political message delivered by the inmates sounded fake (I agree in some parts), and people didn't show up in theaters to see this. Now I think I can agree with critics and even more, here comes a question: Why a 2 star rating movie (according to critics) was selected as Brazil's official submission to the Academy Award's Foreign Language in 2010? Answer: Because of the number of sponsors that appear at the beginning of the movie. The only possible reason. Looking at the possible contestants (Almodovar film "Los Abrazos Rotos") and future nominees (Michael Haneke's film and Juan José Campanella's film) I can only say this: Brazil sent a movie to lose a nomination. It's a good film but it doesn't have the same strong references, powerful stories that those movies had. And worst: "Salve Geral" wasn't even nominated to any award here in Brazil so how did this happened? All I know is that it lacked a good promotion down here, and as an entertaining film it really works. As an historical project it goes wrong (not a disaster). Sergio Rezende directed good real stories based in true events such as "Zuzu Angel", "Guerra De Canudos" and "O Homem Da Capa Preta" (The Man in the Black Cape). By the way, the tension moments presented in his earlier films worked so much better and here it didn't work at all, many times the violent moments weren't interesting to see, almost laughable things.

About the acting: All actors are placed well, nothing outstanding or brilliant. I liked Denise Weinberg in a few moments, she acts well as the powerful lawyer, in other moments she over acts too much. Bruno Perillo has few scenes but his look is powerful as the convict leader of the group. You trust this guy for some odd reason, almost like the same way Lúcia liked him and started to love him. The leading actress Andréa Beltrão was good in few moments, because most of the time she's crying or with an endless sad face that bothered me throughout the film. Lee Thalor is quite good considering that he never made a film before.

Explaining the title: Salve Geral is a criminal slang used to bring all prisoners and criminal people outside of prisons together in an act of violence. Something similar like the Army does to unite its troops: "Calling All Units".

Once again: as an entertaining movie it works, it's good and watchable. But as an historical account with true facts and real perspectives of people who were there in the tragedy, it sucks. 8/10.

Salve Geral delivers a sharp and sobering portrait of a society on the edge. What begins as a personal story of a mother navigating an unexpected and desperate turn in her life slowly unfolds into something much broader - a reflection on justice, corruption, and the blurry line between survival and morality.

The film's strength lies in its realism. The tension builds naturally, with a raw energy that refuses to let the viewer look away. Every scene feels grounded, driven by strong performances and a script that doesn't preach, but instead asks difficult questions. The protagonist's journey feels emotionally authentic, with each decision pulling her deeper into a world she never imagined herself part of.

What's most impressive is how the film manages to tie individual struggle to systemic issues without losing sight of the human element. It never feels exploitative or overly dramatized - just painfully real.

A powerful, haunting experience that stays with you long after the credits roll. Not easy to watch, but absolutely worth it.

The movie is about the killing spree that São Paulo passed through in 2006. More than 40 policemen were killed, many others civilian and a lot of criminals, and innocent people that the police said were criminals.

This rebellion is one without equals, a very rare case, where the authorities had to negotiate with the criminals. But in the true story, they negotiate through a woman attorney, that is present in the movie plot (ruiva) but not quite like the true story. This case has been deeply studied by the press and the authorities, and it could be more realistic, in my opinion. In fact if it were more realistic more people would have watched and the movie would be much more interesting.

They could explore more the situations inside the penitentiaries, but instead the character Rafa leaves the jail and keeps doing stupid crimes, like burning a dressing store, which seems quite implausible.

I found that the lawyer Lúcia, main character, very unlikely would fall in love with one criminal inmate. And the scene where she tattoos a snake in her breast is really unlikely and is totally dull, unneeded, without any consequences. I thought her son would see this tattoo and ask about it, but NOTHING happens.

The acting of some actors, like the characters HD and public security secretary is very poor, irritating.

But as the plot is very very interesting, and the movie is well produced, I give 7 out of 10 to this nominee candidate to the Oscar of Foreign Language by Brazil.