🔗 Share this article

Channelling the metropolitan unease and vibrancy of São Paulo, filmmaker Caetano's gripping drama centres on those who inhabit the outskirts of an ever-changing metropolis. Recently released from juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (João Pedro Mariano) faces a critical turning point; deserted by his parents, the innocent young man finds solace in the arms of others.

On an night on the town with his rowdy group of gay and non-binary friends, Wellington meets Ronaldo (actor Ricardo Teodoro), a hunky, charismatic hustler significantly older than his age. Bathed in the wavering neon of a neon-lit porn cinema, their introductory rendezvous is physical and passionate, with an tinge of peril. Ronaldo quickly introduces Wellington to the shadowy world of the sex trade and narcotics trafficking.

A Portrait of Empathy Instead of Sensationalism

Caetano depicts Wellington’s new life of crime with compassionate understanding as opposed to as a sensationalist cautionary tale. Now using the alias Baby, he enters his commercial trysts with brash fearlessness and poignant gullibility. To his clients, Wellington offers more than his youth and his body, but also moments of care.

In the feverish excitement of São Paulo, filled with crowded backstreets and colourful shopfronts, there’s a gnawing loneliness, as rootless people cling on to one another for fleeting joy.

"The urban landscape might be fraught with peril, yet they are also the space where they can discover chosen kin, too."

A Complex Relationship of Love and Control

Ronaldo is at once a romantic interest and a protective father figure to Wellington, but their bond is sabotaged by envy and economic precarity. Dangers posed by nefarious characters in the underworld are overshadowed by the fear of state surveillance and imprisonment, symbolized by the looming presence of police officers making their rounds.

Baby is especially potent as a perceptive study of the forgotten souls who have been failed by the social system. The film functions as a moving look into survival, found community, and the search for identity within a unforgiving urban landscape.