The director’s most famous film is a classic that’s true to his down-to-earth yet poetic style, a portrait of four young orphans trying to get by in the slums of Rio, chasing after money and food until the grim reality of the situation hits home.

Not a documentary, but meticulously researched and there are elements in the film that come as close as possible to the real thing. Lively, beautiful (not just the locations, which felt very exotic in Swedish cinemas at the time, but all the details caught by Arne Sucksdorff’s curious camera) and ultimately moving.

The young cast feels entirely natural.

1965-Sweden. 88 min. B/W. Directed, photographed and edited by Arne Sucksdorff. Screenplay: Arne Sucksdorff, Flávio Migliaccio, João Bethencourt. Cast: Leila Santos de Sousa (Lici), Cosme dos Santos (Jorginho), Josafá Da Silva Santos (Paulinho), Antonio ”Toninho” Carlos de Lima, Hermínia Gonçalves, Dirce Migliaccio.

Trivia: Original title: Mitt hem är Copacabana. Released in Brazil as Fábula. 

Guldbagge Award: Best Director.

Last word: “I looked at 21,000 boys before finding my actors. Then I had to spend eight months to turn them into ‘regular’ people. They live in a world that is unimaginable to us. Where right is wrong and wrong is right; where the police are crooks and bandits heroes. Some in the cast were taken for hold-up criminals. We were surrounded by actual criminals. There was one guy we had to find a wig. The police had shaved his head and we needed to shoot a few closing scenes.” (Sucksdorff, Aftonbladet)