''7 Prisoners'' ( pt, 7 Prisioneiros) is a 2021 Brazilian

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by Alexandre Moratto from a screenplay by Moratto and Thayná Mantesso. The film stars

Christian Malheiros Christian Malheiros (born 14 August 1999) is a Brazilian actor. He is known for his award-winning performance in the 2018 drama film ''Sócrates (film), Sócrates'', which was praised by critics and earned him a nomination for Independent Spirit A ...

and

Rodrigo Santoro Rodrigo Junqueira Reis Santoro (; born 22 August 1975) is a Brazilian actor. He is most known for his portrayal of Persian King Xerxes in the movie '' 300'' (2006) and its sequel '' 300: Rise of an Empire'' (2014). Other famous movies include ...

and premiered at the

78th Venice International Film Festival The 78th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 1 to 11 September 2021. South Korean director Bong Joon-ho was appointed as the President of the Jury, marking the first time a South Korean director has been picked as the festiv ...

on September 6, 2021. It was released on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

in November 2021.

Plot

18-year-old Mateus leaves the countryside in search for a job opportunity in a

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

junkyard. Once there, Mateus and some other boys become a victim of a work system analogous to

modern slavery Contemporary slavery, also sometimes known as modern slavery or neo-slavery, refers to institutional slavery that continues to occur in present-day society. Estimates of the number of enslaved people today range from around 38 million to 46 mil ...

run by Luca, forcing Mateus to make the difficult decision between working for the man who enslaved him or risking his and his family's futures if he is not complicit.

Cast

as Mateus *

as Luca * Bruno Rocha * Vitor Julian as Ezequiel * Lucas Oranmian as Isaque * Dirce Thomaz

Production

During an interview with

Film Independent The Independent Spirit Awards (abbreviated Spirit Awards and originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards), founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass ...

on his award-winning

directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many film makers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

Sócrates Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira (19 February 1954 – 4 December 2011), simply known as Sócrates, was a Brazilian footballer who played as a midfielder. His medical degree and his political awareness, combined with styl ...

'', Brazilian-American filmmaker Alexandre Moratto announced that he was developing an original screenplay about

and

human trafficking Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others. This may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage, or the extrac ...

in Brazil. Moratto was set to re-team with co-writer Thayná Mantesso on the film. On September 5, 2020, Moratto revealed that he was collaborating again with directors

Ramin Bahrani Ramin Bahrani ( fa, رامین بحرانی; born March 20, 1975) is an American director and screenwriter. Film critic Roger Ebert ranked Bahrani's ''Chop Shop'' (2007) as the sixth-best film of the 2000s, calling him "the new director of the ...

and

Fernando Meirelles Fernando Ferreira Meirelles (; born 9 November 1955) is a Brazilian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for co-directing the film '' City of God'', released in 2002 in Brazil and in 2003 in the U.S. by Miramax Films, which ...

, through his production company O2 Filmes, to produce the film, with

distributing. Bahrani, Moratto's

film school A film school is an educational institution dedicated to teaching aspects of filmmaking, including such subjects as film production, film theory, digital media production, and screenwriting. Film history courses and hands-on technical training ...

mentor, presented the film to the company while directing ''

The White Tiger A white tiger is a tiger with a genetic condition affecting its pelt's pigmentation. White tiger, White Tiger or The White Tiger may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Characters * White Tiger (comics), various Marvel Comics superhero ...

''. Speaking about the film, Moratto said: The lead role of the film was written by Moratto specifically for

, whom he discovered during intensive auditions for ''Sócrates'' where he was ultimately cast and rose to Brazilian prominence. Moratto also cast a Brazilian immigrant who worked for six months in a

sweatshop A sweatshop or sweat factory is a crowded workplace with very poor, socially unacceptable or illegal working conditions. Some illegal working conditions include poor ventilation, little to no breaks, inadequate work space, insufficient lighting, o ...

while he was conducting research interviews with survivors of

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

in the Horizons Extra section on September 6, 2021, which is set to be followed by its North American premiere at the

2021 Toronto International Film Festival The 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, the 46th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held from September 9 to 18, 2021.Barry Hertz"TIFF planning ‘substantially bigger’ 2021 film festival compared to last year’ ...

in the Contemporary World Cinema section. After its festival screening, the film was released on

globally in November 2021.

Reception

On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, 98% of 45 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 7.5/10.

References

External links

* {{NAACP Image Award for Outstanding International Motion Picture 2021 drama films 2021 films Brazilian drama films Films about human trafficking Films about immigration Films about labour Films about Brazilian slavery Netflix original films 2020s Portuguese-language films 2020s Brazilian films