Bicho de Sete Cabeças

This film is brilliant, flawless performances and beautifully told story, coupled with the beautiful soundtrack. Unfortunately Brazilian films still suffer discrimination even here.

I would love people to disclose this marvelous work.

When I see the potential of this movie, seriously believe that would be worthy of an Oscar, two or three Oscar's. Not that Oscar is so important to the quality of a film if the film did not win is not a sign that he is not good.

Briefly, this movie demonstrates what happens when people are prejudiced, and prefer to push the issue to another, than face it. And still today, because it shows that you treat marijuana like crazy, can only worsen things.

a true story about a young man that's put in an asylum by his own father when he founds a pot cigarette on the son's pocket. wonderfully photographed in a documental way, with a camera that's always on movement, this movie has a perfect script, great soundtrack, composed by two of brazil's most talented musicians and absolutely marvelous performances, specially by the lead character, neto, played by Rodrigo Santoro and his friend on the asylum, Ceara. this movie is a must see!!!

Brainstorm aka Bicho de Sete Cabeças (2000) - Seven Heads Animal - an expression that means "a very hard obstacle to fight or a complex thing to do" is also the name of a song written by Arnaldo Antunes, whose songs were used as soundtrack in the movie. His lyrics are great - he is a recognized writer, lyricist and singer in Brazil - and fit perfectly the movie plot and atmosphere, as well as the instrumental part of the songs. The atmosphere is full of darkness and sadness. This is not an easy movie to watch. I can't say much about the plot, but I can tell that it's about the asylum system in Brazil. For you to have a picture of how bad some places were, there is a famous book about one asylum called "Brazilian Holocaust", by Daniela Arbex... The film portrays with an astonishing realism the routine on an asylum with focus on the life of Neto (Rodrigo Santoro). The technical features are great. The locations, the make up, the costume design and the cinematography make the film disturbingly real. In addition to all of this, the acting also helps a lot making the movie believable. Rodrigo Santoro is fantastic in this film. He totally embraced the character and brilliantly showed his behavior changes through the story. The movie seems short when we notice the length, 74 minutes, but the editing is great and helps with the pace. It's not fast nor slow and I really liked it. The editing also helped creating an escalating narrative, with a suffocating climax and a great ending. A very worth watching movie directed by Laís Bodanzky.

Neto is a teenager. He's quiet, doesn't seem to care about anything, and is tight-lipped with his mother, father and sister. He hangs out, drinks, smokes pot with his friends, and gets arrested for spray-painting graffiti. He even gets into a pushing fight with his father when they argue.

When his father finds a marijuana joint in his clothing, the family thinks that he has a drug habit. They decide to practice tough love to help him. Do they talk to him about what they've found? No. Do they put him in a drug-counseling program? No.

This is where the title, Bicho de Sete Cabeças (animal with seven heads) comes in. It's a Brazilian term that loosely means, 'making a mountain out of a molehill,' 'blowing something way out of proportion' or 'something horrible.' The action that Neto's family takes when they find that he's been smoking joints is drastic. Convinced that they are doing the proper thing, they commit him into a mental institution. They have every faith in the staff to help their loving son and brother.

Neto's nightmare begins, when it is evident that he is in the wrong place. The Institution staff is corrupt and mistreats its patients. In order to keep him docile and to restrain him in the ward to get more government funds, they give him drugs and shock therapy.

This film is based on the real life experience of Austregésilo Carrano who has made it his mission in life to expose and fight abuses that can take place in Brazilian mental institutions. While watching the film, I thought the entire situation would end in a tragedy, but I was happy to see that something positive came out of the experience.

The entire cast gives a heart-wrenching performance. Rodrigo Santoro, who plays the role of Neto gives a very strong performance. My heart ached for Neto as I watched his father trick him into going to the mental institution and then finding himself trapped in a nightmare, where he was sane among the other patients.

The sister (played by Daniela Nefussi) and parents (played by Othon Bastos and Cássia Kiss) give convincing performances. I could understand their actions, although clearly misguided and drastic.

Bicho de Sete Cabeças is the story of something horrific that ends well.

I went to the cinema expecting to watch a good movie with strong dialogues,but it was much better!!!Bicho de sete cabeças is not a good movie ,it is just fantastic.Rodrigo Santoro plays Neto a young boy who lieves taking drugs,disturbing people and having a dangerous life. When Neto's father discover that he take drugs ,his parent dicide to put him in a mental imstitution where he receives eletric shocks and many drugs to turn him in a "normal" guy.He goes in a deeply hell. The movie brings you to the reality of this kind of institute , the horrible relashionship of the father to his son , and the world of drugs. Rodrigo Santoro will surprise you with the best performance of the year,Othon Bastos and Cassia kiss are the parents that have a lot of disturbing behavior.You have never seen anything like this movie. Be prepeared for a strong movie ,for crying scenes and Excellents performances.