Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2006

Justice Maria Ramos (Netherlands, 2004)

Introduced by Nancy Scheper-Hughes

Nancy Scheper-Hughes is a professor of medical anthropology at UC Berkeley, where she directs the doctoral program in critical studies in medicine, science, and the body.

(Justiça). The corridors of power—in this case, a Brazilian criminal court—are illuminated in Maria Ramos\'s fly-on-the-wall portrait of the judged and the judging. A man caught with a stolen car, alleged thieves, and part-time druggies all pass through the courts, their bewildered yet all-too-human behavior forming a dramatic counterpoint to the rigid judiciary that surrounds and eventually sentences them. Ramos\'s static camera exposes the oppressive firmness of the world these “criminals” are passing through, a realm where discourse is open and understood only by a certain few, and where even the rooms themselves impose a certain inescapable order. Using an observational aesthetic akin to the work of Frederick Wiseman, Justice never blinks as it uncovers the frustrations of people unable to comprehend (much less communicate with) those who hold the keys to their future.

—Jason Sanders

• Written by Ramos. Photographed by Flavio Zangrandi. (102 mins, In Portuguese with English subtitles, Color, Beta SP)