Outlaw is the English title for the Brazilian Netflix film Bandida: A Número Um. This is one of the many crime dramas about Brazil and the drug dealing underworld that thrives in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Dom on Amazon Prime Video and City of God are some of the prominent stories about the crime rings that festered in the slums, aka favelas, of Rio, and how they began to affect the people. Directed by João Wainer, the movie is based on a book written by Raquel de Oliveira, titled A Número Um. Outlaw was released on Netflix on September 11, 2024.
The movie is set in the year 1992 in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, where a young girl named Rebeca was living with her hardworking mother. The movie began with the scene of police attacking her den. As a result, she was making cassettes and recording her life story before she was rescued or, worse, killed. Rebeca had a hardworking mother, but the young girl was sold off by her addict grandmother to a drug peddler named Amorosso. She sadly had to grow up working tirelessly for Amorosso’s drug trade. She started slowly becoming an influential figure in the drug trade while she was in a relationship with Para, one of the drug peddlers working for Amorosso’s rival, Del Ray. The life of crime in the favela became overwhelming, but she and Para found a way out, hoping to have a happily ever after. Does Rebeca lose everything she and Para had built? Does she go on a revenge spree because of the life she lost? Who attacked her group in the beginning of the film?
One of the best aspects of Outlaw is the realistic elements included to make the movie feel very grounded. The movie is set from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, and the makers of the film made sure the production value was up to the mark to transport the viewers back to the era the movie is set in. The clothes, cars, and surroundings add to the ambience of the dense urbanism and crime, which make for fantastic viewing experience. The best part of the movie is the story, written by Patricia Andrade, Cesar Gananian, João Wainer, and Thaís Nunes. The screenplay of the film is a prominent aspect, as it allows the narrative to remain steady from the start till the end. The movie does a good job of talking about subjects like rampant poverty in Brazil, the children choosing a life of crime over educating themselves, women being mistreated by men, drug addiction, betting during football games, and the corruption in the local police.
In the run time of eighty-four minutes, the makers and the writers of the movie quite brilliantly cover these subjects with a lot of depth and finesse. A lot of the credit goes to the director as well, running double duty as one of the writers of the film. Outlaw does a good job of not glorifying the life of crime. There are actions, and there are consequences to those actions. None of them are heroes or invincible in this film. They are powerful people who are eventually killed. The direction needs to be praised because it uses good editing techniques to take the narrative forward. There are scenes from Rebeca’s past being used to prove a point, and they’re shot very interestingly. There are scenes that have a young Rebeca surrounded by her childhood friends, while the same group are now against her. The merging of the two timelines showcasing how life changed them is a brilliant way to convey how people choose their own path. The film is extremely violent, so viewer discretion is advised. Gun violence is nothing new in the favelas, and the director has done a tight job of showcasing how hard life is for the people living in the slums. The violence and action scenes are very well written and executed.
The direction and the cinematography make the viewers feel the scenes are happening around us. Even if none of us have lived experience in Rio de Janeiro, Outlaw evokes the spirit of the place with its brilliant direction and outstanding cinematography. The use of old-school filmmaking creates the atmosphere of a bygone era. However, the narrative is more about Rocinha, the name of the favela, than Rebeca herself. Rebeca is the central character of the film, yet the movie somehow ended up being about the favela and not the internal struggle of being a woman and having to pick up pieces of the chaos. There is a mention of her mother only in the beginning, but later on there is nothing explored about her relationship with her parent figure. Since they stayed in the same favela, they might have run into each other at some point. This subplot is not explored, which could bug the viewers. The sound design and the music of the film are brilliant as well. It meshes well with the mood of Outlaw. The editing of the film will remind everyone of Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream, as the movie undoubtedly shows the effect of narcotics on the human body.
Outlaw has some brilliant performances as well. Maria Bomani as Rebeca is excellent as the woman whose story is being told in the most brutal fashion. She has grown up around chaos, and she responds only with violence. Maria Bomani gets into the skin of the character very well. Since Outlaw has a lot of Rebeca and the town of Rocinha, the rest of the performances do get overshadowed. Yet, the screen presence of all the actors is brilliant, and they deliver first-class performances. Outlaw or Bandida: A Número Um” is a brilliant piece of cinema to come out of Brazil.
