Our take
For many coming-of-age stories, there’s the dream of growing up, getting out of your comfort zone, and finding purpose, success, or maybe, just the simple case to earn enough money for a better life. It’s this dream that makes 7 Prisoners such a harrowing coming-of-age drama. The plot feels reminiscent of something Charles Dickens would have written, but writer-director Alexandre Moratto focuses more on the characters with the lever in their respective trolley problems, which male lead Christian Malheiros takes with such a dynamic performance, and which Moratto takes to a more depressing end. 7 Prisoners is much more bleak compared to many coming-of-age stories, but it’s one that works as a necessary exposé of a real life social issue that the world should have solved long long before.
What it won
Venice
1 nom
The story
An impoverished teen seeking to escape the clutches of a human trafficker must weigh living up to his moral code against his struggle to survive.
Elsewhere
"There isn't much more to this lean and satisfying movie than that, but Moratto complicates the central dilemma with the skill of a master dramatist."
— David Ehrlich
"A fraught thriller that wonders at the fragility of the human soul."
— Roxana Hadadi
Now that he’s 18 years old, Mateus hopes to provide a better life for his family by accepting a new job in São Paolo, though what awaits him might not be what he expected.
The way Moratto crafts and cultivates a bleak mood as each situation swaps out for a heavier moral dilemma for Mateus, and as his boss Lucas has gone through the same thing.
It’s actually depressing that despite all our technological advances, the world still resorts to exploiting children like Mateus.
Streaming arrival
Who picked it
Isabella Endrinal is a curator at A Good Movie to Watch. She's now free from the corporate night shift. Previous articles have been published in outlets such as NANG Magazine. She's currently catching up on some classic films… if she isn't coping with the fact that the Haikyu anime will end soon.
