Helen is a 9-year-old girl living in a cortiço in Bixiga - a neighborhood in the city of São Paulo, known for having a large concentration of migrants: first Italians, then Brazilians from the northeastern of the country, and now Haitians.
Born in a poor and unstructured family, Helen lives with her grandmother, Dona Maria, who also fulfills the role of mother and father. The matriarch supports the family through informal work. Between street plays, school classes, and a little help with home duties for her grandma, Helen lives the neighborhood life intensely, walking freely around and participating in the various traditional local events.
Still very naive, she spends the days oblivious to the harshness of her reality and her main concern is to raise money to buy a gift for grandma: a complete makeup kit.
Direction: André Meirelles Collazzo
Cast: Marcelia Cartaxo, Thalita Machado, Tony Tornado
Original Title: Helen
Original Language: Portuguese
Subtitles: English, Spanish
Film Production Country: Brazil