“Pedro Bala will follow his Destiny…. There is no one he won’t try to help… He will be like his father…. He will organize all the boys in Bahia… And everyone will listen to him….He is going to fight for what is most important in life…..Freedom!” These are the closing words from the professor in the 2011 Brazilian portuguese movie Capitães da Areia (Captain of the Sands) directed by Cecília Amado

The movie is based on the 1937 brazilian novel of the same name by Jorge Amado that tells the story of a gang of street kids living in rundown buildings in the Salvador Docks… the harshness of street law that makes them men before their body can grow….

A gang of orphans and abandoned kids and their way of life on the streets of Bahia, Brazil…. Pedro Bala is the leader of the gang and the professor his trusted lieutenant… Into their life comes a girl Dora and her little brother Ze…. a girl is a big no in the gang but she comes and connects with many as a motherly figure and takes shelter in Pedro’s heart and loses her heart to him….

The movie shows you life as raw as possible and honest and with a well crafted innocent brutality (if I could call it that way)… the landscape of a Social life on the streets intertwined with the afro brazilian culture adds to the story telling…

Through the story you are introduced to characters like Sam Pernas who always plays a physically handicapped kid who always plays the role of to distract victims during street mugging that the gang does…. Boa Vida the song writer and aspiring musician…. and Gato and his romantic endeavours with the street prostitute Ilheus takes your from streets… a few faces you will take with you after the movie…

Loved the movie…. for the harshness is depicted without the violence as in the “City of Gods”