A BATALHA DA RUA MARIA ANTÔNIA (The Battle)

In the summer of 1968, left-wing students occupied the philosophy faculty of the University of São Paulo as a protest against the fledgling military dictatorship. The violence escalated in October when right-wing students and a paramilitary, anti-communist thug squad attacked them and shot a teenager. In virtuously choreographed sequences on black and white 16mm film, Vera Egito constructs a stirring insight into these tense days. The precise camera moves like an additional protagonist, as the admonishing spirit of student resistance.