Four brothers with four burning ambitions: an ordinary family. One mother trying to hold things together, eternally trying to unblock the kitchen sink in the shack they all share in non-attractive Säo Paolo, Brazil.
Dario sets his hopes for escaping the slum life on his skills as a footballer; Denis is a womanising petty crook waiting for the big break. Dhino finds it in Pentecostal Christianity, but the path is bumpy, little Reginaldo just wants to drive a bus - and succeeds somewhat extravagantly!
A coming of age story, this female-directed movie explores a male world sustained by women. Brothers fall out but are there for each other. Life is lived in the atmosphere of an edgy criminality, and the family don't have much by way of material goods, the contrast with others being provided by the doctor's home that the mother cleans.
Hope of a brighter future is represented when the tired, old before her time and pregnant yet again mother comes home to find that the kitchen sink has been properly unblocked by Dario who has suddenly begun to care. Such a small matter, but it gives joy, pleasure and light to an otherwise weary existence. I'll never look at my free-flowing plug hole in quite the same way again.
Dhino, the Christian, is an interesting character, and presents a gritty realism of faith. He hobbles along trusting in Jesus, messing up frequently, but going on in faith and in the knowledge that he is accepted by God even though he is not perfect. His family and friends know his shortcomings and tease him mercilessly about his faith and failings but he keeps on going, making mistakes and walking with courage in a fallen world.
Sao Paolo is depicted as a dirty, crass sort of place, nowhere to raise a family, but the non-descript setting lets the family show themselves for who they are without the distraction of the exotic, and let's face it, there's nowhere more exotic than Brazil - or so I hear.
