''The Cambridge Squatter'' ( Brazilian Portuguese: ''Era o Hotel Cambridge'') is a 2016 Brazilian film directed by

Eliane Caffé Eliane Caffé (born 1961) is a Brazilian filmmaker. Born in São Paulo, Caffé got a Psychology degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo in 1985 and a master's degree from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in 1992. Caffé directed ...

. It tells a fictionalised version of the occupation of the Cambridge Hotel in innercity São Paulo. Filmed mainly in the building, actual squatters act alongside well-known Brazilian actors such as

José Dumont José Dumont (born 1 August 1950 in Bananeiras, Paraíba) is a Brazilian TV and movie actor, best known for his role as the family father in ''Behind the Sun'' (''Abril Despedaçado''), an award-winning film of director Walter Salles. More ...

and

Suely Franco Suely Franco (born 16 October 1939) is a Brazilian actress. She was born in Rio de Janeiro. One of her most notable parts is the character Mimosa in ''O Cravo e a Rosa ''O Cravo e a Rosa'' ( en, The Thorn and the Rose) is a Brazilian telenove ...

Synopsis

The film tracks the occupation of the Cambridge Hotel by low-paid workers and refugees. It is a large 15 storey building in the innercity of São Paulo. The squatters include people from the Congo, Haiti, Syria and Palestine as well as from Brazil. From the established actors,

plays Apolo, who in a

film within the film A story within a story, also referred to as an embedded narrative, is a literary device in which a character within a story becomes the narrator of a second story (within the first one). Multiple layers of stories within stories are sometimes c ...

is workshopping a documentary set in the building and

is Gilda, an elderly circus performer. A charismatic housing activist is played by Carmen Silva (who is in real life a campaigner with Frente de Luta por Moradia (FLM, or the Front for Housing Struggle)). Filming mostly inside the squat, the camera follows the different characters as they go about their daily routines of cooking food, skyping family members, attending meetings and interacting with each other. The threat of eviction is seen off after Silva encourages everyone to throw coconuts at the police on the street.

Production

In order to get everyone on the same level, Caffé ran a series of workshops for a year with the actors and the squatters. After the film was completed, the art director (and sister of the director) Carla Caffé produced a book about the production process which was called ''The Cambridge Squatter''. The book explains that the film-makers helped to build a vegetable garden and taught camera workshops.

Reviews

The film received generally positive reviews. Cineuropa said that Caffé reveals "with a brutal candour tempered by humour and affection, a glimpse of the everyday lives of the protagonists".

FIPRESCI The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI, short for Fédération Internationale de la PRESse CInématographique) is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world fo ...

commented that the film was not perfect but "the essence is a timely film, global and urgent".

Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...

concluded that "this uneven film delivers a potent combination of empathy and food for thought, not unlike a coconut thrown at the establishment's head".

Accolades

At the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, the film won Best Film (Audience), Best Brazilian Film and Best Editing.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cambridge Squatter, The 2016 films Films about squatting Brazilian independent films Squatting in Brazil