Juízo

Behave follows several minors who have fallen into the hands of the Brazilian legal system. Boys and girls from underprivileged backgrounds are charged with serious crimes, and receive sentences for theft, drug trafficking, and even murder. Because Brazilian law forbids making the identities of these minors public, the accused adolescents are played by young people who have endured similar social conditions, although innocent of any actual crime. All the other characters in the film - judges, prosecutors, public defenders, correctional officers, family members - are real people filmed during hearings in the Juvenile Court in Rio de Janeiro and visits to the Padre Severino Institute, the correctional facility that the minors are sent to. Behave walks the same dead-end corridors and encounters the sheer volume of cases within the system as seen in Justice, Maria Ramos's award-winning previous film. It explores the judicial process and how easily we are swayed over questions involving minors breaking the law, revealing the consequences of a society that expects its children to behave, but fails to set a good example for them. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)