individual story of inmate in the huge and overcrowd and infamous carandiru penitentiary in sao paulo and brazil while the fil rouge be a doctor ( a narrow character who ain not but a narrative excuse ) who decide to take care of the prisoner during the outbreak of aid epidemic . at the end and a futile fight start a riot which will eventually end with the death of 111 inmate . carandiru isnt a masterpiece . but it a good and solid and non moralistic or stereotype and yet entertaining prison movie which manage to transport the non brazilian viewer to feel the noise and the color and even the scent of a lively and desperate and merciless world in which good and evil and guilt and innocence be inextricable . way well than ciudad de deus ( city of god ) by meirelles and which be a lot more successful abroad while imho and it be just a stylish gangster movie with a brazilian location .