About as hard hitting as documentaries get, Bus 174 charts the events of 12 June 2000 when young drug addict, Sandro do Nascimento, hi-jacked a packed bus in Rio de Janeiro. Broadcast live to the Brazil public, thanks to a quick response of the news cameras, the stand-off between the hideously cornered do Nascimento and the police lasted for some four hours, ending in a tragic set of circumstances which could have been avoided.
Rather than just focusing on the incendiary news footage, directors Jose Padilha and Felipe Lacerda attempt to give some sort of insight into the doomed Sandro do Nascimento's life, detailing his horrendous early days and his apparently unavoidable drift towards crime and punishment. Further widening the information net with testimonies of survivors and eye witnesses, the directors also make comment on the bleak prospects for those living in the infamous slums of Rio de Janeiro.
There's a horrible inevitability about the events of Bus 174, but the skill of Jose Padilha and Felipe Lacerda is in fashioning the vast amount of coverage of the incident into a cohesive whole, while also using materials at their disposal to make often shocking observations on the pathetic discrepancies found in Brazilian society. Distressing and enlightening, Bus 174 rocks with a searing realism, but never fails to pinpoint its targets with a startling compassion. This is must see stuff.
