Back in 2013 even here in the UK, news reached our far flung shores of the terrible tragic events of the Kiss Night Club fire. For those not familiar with the story - In Santa Maria Brazil students from six universities organised a joint night at the Kiss Nightclub during which two local bands would perform. During the performance of the second, careless use of a handheld firework set inflammable insulation in the ceiling alight. The band failed to properly alert the problem to the audience until it was too late and fire quickly spread, releasing poisonous gas into the air..
The club was packed way beyond its safety capacity at the time, had a poor layout for swift evacuation, no emergency exit, inadequate fire fighting equipment, no evacuation plan prepared, poor lighting and inadequate signage for the only exit. In the panic to escape a huge number of students were crushed but over 180 fled into the bathrooms from which there was no escape, dozens more had severe burns and ultimately 242 people were killed in the tragedy.
Now the story of these awful events, based on the book by Daniela Arbex is brought to life in a five part drama series, available on Netflix and it has to be said, in my case is responsible for me going to bed at an extremely late hour. It's not an easy watch, but watch it we should, for this is a very potent and important message here.
I put the first episode of this drama on last night at 2am and found myself watching all five episodes of the drama, unable to pull myself away from it, resisting a search on google fo discover the outcome. Now, I am not just a casual viewer on Netflix, but a playwright who has tackled similar issues of social injustice in my own country and worked on a number of dramas in this genre. I found the critical reviews on here highly suspicious and the negative comments to be largely without foundation. This is an extremely well written, compelling story about an issue which underlines many things that is wrong with the world today - Those who have very little in society are poorly served by those they elect to lead them. Over the five episodes we discover an entire litany of corruption and poor regulations which allowed the circumstances where such a tragedy could occur. This story is very reminiscent of other such painful disasters, such as the Hillsborough football disaster and the more recent fire at the Colectiv Nightclub in Bucharest. Which itself, proves lessons still have not been learned. This is an important message, and this show understands that. It's core message to its critics - Are the lives of our children worth nothing to you?
After showing us the story of fire itself (which must be extremely difficult viewing for anyone who was there, or knew someone who was there) the shift changes to the investigation to find those responsible before focusing on the key parents who campaigned relentlessly to have those responsible at a higher level brought to justice. The show gives an episode to the Police investigation and sheds light on the complete failure of health and safety at every level. Someone else commented the show doesn't highlight these other issues enough, but that is NOT true. The series does exactly that, which is the entire reason the parents continued their quest in bringing people to justice. To highlight these issues. There is also nothing wrong with the music, tone of the piece, nor its presentation. This is a first rate professional production in every sense and anyone calling it amateurish should hang their heads in shame for doing so.
As the parents demand answers, their own DA suffers from a lack of complete inertia, even trying to prosecute them in return for being critical. This is a vital part of the story and one of which I was completely unaware.
Several of the cast do an outstanding job of portraying the anguished parents as well as the frustrated Police investigators, who identify 28 people responsible for the chain of events, but the DA only appear willing to go after the four obvious scape goats. The band members and the night club owner and manager. Of the cast, special mention must be made of Thelmo Ferdandes and Paulo Gorgulho who play Pedro Leal and Ricardo Martins, fathers of two of the dead children, who lead the campaign of justice. Leonardo Medeiros gives an extremely layered performance as Geraldo Alberto Ramos Fontes, another bereaved parent, whose very much an outsider but has a pragmatic legal approach to the case, proving many facts early on which would take the DA years to admit. Special mention must go to the young Brazilian cast, many of them unknowns, playing victim and survivor alike. The give their characters an international resonance whose loss will be felt by any parent. It is extremely important in a drama such as this, that we feel we know those who are victims in such events, so that we, the viewer have some sense of their loss as well. This was a group of people out to have a good time, in the prime of their lives. They depended on the regulatory bodies of their state to protect them in such a venue and the state failed them. This drama sheds light on an important flashpoint in history, which is not just only relevant to Brazil, but to the entire world. Trust me when I say, there's other clubs out there, where this is waiting to happen. To those parents who fought for so long, and still fight for justice of their children. You have not done so in vain. I have heard you and I will do my best to make sure the world hears you too.
Essential viewing.
