Natal da Portela

Nice biopic about one of the most remarkable characters in the history of samba and carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Besides his core role in samba school Portela, Natal had a tragic life, and represents both the difficulties imposed to black poor people to have an honest life and the connections between crime or misdemeanor and social work as there is a lack of public policies in poor neighborhoods. The film is visually very nice, and a skilled group of actors and actresses performed together with some historical samba musicians. As a serious drawback, the script does not connect very well the different events it shows (and many important events and historical characters have been correcly included), and many dialogues are too theater-like and unnatural, besides not well performed. Soundtrack is excellent, what obviously is no surprise at all. In the ending, some documentary footage and carnival!