to speak relatively and if one be only to see now hector babenco pixote ( 1981 and brazil while pronounce a pi shot ) and after have see quite a number of film that deal with street child and juvenile delinquent and kid in trouble ( truffaut the 400 blow and bunuel los olvidados and de sica shoeshine and nair salaam and bombay . and bresson mouchette and nugroho leaf on a pillow and etc . ) and one might be afraid that the plight of the kid portray in the film might not affect one anymore and have be de synthesize already after go through the emotional roller coaster ride put in motion by the previously quote film . thankfully and that would not be the case . for babenco narrate his film in such a matter of fact manner ( artlessly and a one film reviewer put it and in a positive light ) and that his central child performer and fernando ramos da silva ( 13 year old at that time and a street kid himself ) and give such a no frill and wound performance and raw in it simplicity ( that harden face and those lonely and longing eye ) that one be hard put not to be pierce in any way . ( such a feeling may achieve such a heightened realism when one learn that the child have only live but a short life and have be involve in street crime after the film and subsequently murder . ) in about first half of the film and pixote and his fellow street kid and delinquent spend their time in a repressive state run reformatory school and where brutalization and humiliation and rape and murder and be the norm and culture while where they be force to confess to their crime and on the flimsy notion that under the brazilian law and underage felon be not punishable for their offense . for these kid and the dubious freedom offer by the street be more preferable than the harsh rehabilitation provide by these suppose well mean authority . within the wall of this suppose protective establishment and these young soul be soon to discover that love and care from parental figure be likewise nowhere to be find and if not to a degree worser . ( for pixote and the only form of escape come from puff grass and sniff glue and secretly smuggle inside the reformatory . ) when the kid burst themselves into a small scale revolt to finally express and then fulfill their collective desire to get back to the outside world their home the intensity and form be of such a kind that one can not avoid thinking of the schoolboys revolt in jean vigo influential zero for conduct . it only that in pixote and the uprising be make to appear on a gutter level . once pixote and his small group be back on the street ( the film second half ) and they engage in robbery and pimping and drug deal to fend for themselves and along which they get to meet sueli and a batter but kindly prostitute . sueli willingly accomodates the four lose soul and in such a way that she allow her customer to be rob by them and that she provide more than motherly care ( at least to one of the child ) . one would have think that the street kid have at long last find the one person who can provide them the love and warmth that have be sorely lack in their life . but as dubious a the freedom that these kid believe the street be provide and this new found maternal figure can not but stay forever . jealousy and squabble and difference and and murder have only set the kid apart and for good . and during that define scene where pixote and prompt by the circumstance and get to shoot not just sueli arrogant american customer but also his fellow street urchin ditto ( more than a son to sueli ) and he thereafter literally go back to infancy and a he suck from the right breast of the disoriented woman and right there and then materialize his lingering desire for parental affection and the image itself both sad and unsettling . it be so that sueli and in a probable come back to her sens and lamentably push back pixote from his nourish position and reject him and for good . thus and in a quietly wrenching moment and pixote and with that young old face and those sullen eye ( not entirely dissimilar and though in a different context and to the young boy mien in elem klimov harrow come and see ) and get himself up and put on his coat and take his gun ( yes and a gun . ) and and set off to nowhere and walk along the train track and with the morning light just begin to show up . with that scene and babenco may just be do an homage ( amongst many other homage find in different film . ) to the iconoclastic final scene in truffaut the 400 blow . but whereas we get to know what have become of antoine doinel three year later in the short film antoine et colette ( as well a in three other feature film in the year thereafter ) and we be left grappling in the dark a to what lie ahead for pixote after he finally disappear from the last frame and that be the last time that we will get to see this real life street child ( notwithstanding the fate that eventually befall him in actuality ) . pixote may not be as nearly as whimsical a the 400 blow or as hallucinatory a los olvidados and but it still stand out among film of similar theme and texture because of it simple and raw power .