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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. This the story of a doctor working at the state prison Carandiru in order to implement an AIDS prevention programme. Volunteering his work weekly, this film tells the stories of the inmates he meets, before the infamous Pavillion 9 massacre of 1992 when 111 unarmed inmates were killed. Murderers, rapists, stool pigeons, drug addicts. They were the feared ones, the criminals who really ran Carandiru, Brazil's largest correctional facility: Ebony, an honorable thief and respected leader; Highness, a smooth operator with two families to support; Ezequiel, an ex-surfer turned crack addict; Dagger, a brutal killer with God on his side. They were among the prison's elite, the select few who ruled Carandiru by their own codes and laws. A rule that would end in bloodshed when 300 policemen stormed the facility and brutally murdered 111 unarmed inmates. This is the true story ofthat infamous day in October 1992, a day that shocked the world. The day of the Carandiru Massacre.

Hector Babenco's film is based on true events and the book written by Dr Drauzio Varella. Sao Paulo's House of Detention (referred to as Carandiru) is one of Latin America's largest prison systems. When a doctor (Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos) arrives at the jail to test patients for HIV infection he soon realises that there is an internal power structure among the prisoners, dealing with overcrowding, disease and illegal drug use. However, almost as soon as he manages to establish the prisoners' trust and a routine, the prisoners begin to react violently to their situation, culminating in what is now known as the Carandiru Massacre - which took place on October 2nd, 1992.