Maids--The Movie / Domésticas--O Filme

"Maids--The Movie" is a comedy set in modern São Paulo that illustrates and skewers the relationships between the city's wealthier class (whom we never see on the screen) and the millions of people who serve them as maids, delivery boys, janitors, and other menial laborers. The film is based on Renata Melo's theater piece that presents the lives and struggles of five women among the city's domestic servants. Melo is a multi-talented person: a dancer and choreographer, an actress (playing Cida, one of the maids), a director, Renata Melo is also a practicing dentist, like her father.

In the battle of classes, there is no doubt whose side the film is on, but instead of producing a super serious, overly earnest film, the filmmakers and Renata Melo chose to make their attack on society a comedy--but one with a fierce bite. Having seen the production staged, Fernando Meirelles became interested in turning the show into a film and displays the same visual flare and imagination that American and European audiences saw more recently in Meirelles's latest film, "City of God / Cidade de Deus," which also deals with life in the "favelas" (this time in Rio).

The young directorial team comes from the world of commercials production and uses that hard-hitting visual sense to show the megacity of São Paulo in ways that are both true to its realities and highly critical of the absurdities of its daily life--all the while keeping things on a human scale through comedy and strong rap rhythms. The dialogues ring true in ways that speak to the writers' keen and close observation of the huge world of domestic servants in São Paulo. In the end, the fine, easy acting by a host of young people show Brazil's creativity is nowhere near down and out. We end up inspired by the energy, the resilience, the beauty, and the humor of the world of domestic servants--who certainly find ways to do more than survive in a very tough and unforgiving world. This film (like the play) is an homage to the strong women of Brazil, women whose energy and dynamism gives them a freedom that their masters can only dream of.