in portuguese, with english subtitles, this highly respected brazilian work follows the fates of a group of children living in a gritty and bleak rio de janeiro favela from the late 1960s to the early 1980s - the story centres on its narrator rocket (alexandre rodrigues) and his childhood friends, in particular, li'l dice (douglas silva).

various intertwining story lines demonstrate the social decay of the community as the film moves from the characters' childhood days of soccer games and petty offenses to a deadly and brutal world of gang warfare far from the rio de janeiro of law enforcement and magnificent beaches.