I had not watched this film by Cacá Diegues, based in a play by Vinícius de Moraes, for a long time. It is irregular as I remembered, but perhaps slightly better. Favela/slum looks too much artificial and the drug dealing armed gang is too unconvincing. Off course the movie is not a realistic one, but sort of allegoric; though, a more serious approach when it comes to social issued like these would be desirable. Anyway, cast is very good, with many excellent (and beautiful! Patrícia França, Isabel Fillardis, Maria Ceiça...) actresses and actors. Toni Garrido deviates from this in the leading role, as not only his acing skills are a bit limited (although far from a disaster) but also he is a pop reggae singer, not fitting well the role of a samba artist. The core issue of adapting the Greek myth to a Carnival-Favela Rio de Janeiro setting works pretty well and is interesting. Outcome could and should be much better, but it is an interesting movie anyway.
