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Evoking the city's relentless energy and pulsating life of São Paulo, Marcelo Caetano’s bracing drama centres on those who live on the fringes of an ever-changing metropolis. Recently released from juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (the actor João Pedro Mariano) faces a critical turning point; deserted by his parents, the innocent young man seeks comfort in the arms of others.

On an evening out with his boisterous group of LGBTQ+ and gender non-conforming friends, Wellington encounters Ronaldo (Ricardo Teodoro), a strapping, magnetic hustler more than twice his age. Illuminated by the flickering glow of a adult movie theater, their initial encounter is intimate and charged, with an edge of danger. Ronaldo swiftly initiates Wellington to the underground scene of the sex trade and drug dealing.

A Portrait of Understanding Instead of Exploitation

The film illustrates Wellington’s new life of crime with compassionate understanding instead of as a exploitative warning story. Now going by the name of Baby, he engages in his paid liaisons with swaggering confidence and endearing innocence. To his clients, Wellington provides not just his youth and his body, but also moments of care.

In the feverish excitement of São Paulo, filled with crowded backstreets and brightly painted facades, there’s a persistent isolation, as rootless people cling on to one another for fleeting joy.

"The city are riddled with risk, yet they are where they can find their own family, too."

A Complicated Relationship of Love and Control

Ronaldo is simultaneously a partner and a guardian-like mentor to Wellington, but their relationship is derailed by jealousy and economic precarity. Dangers posed by shady figures in the underworld pale in comparison to the dread of institutional observation and imprisonment, epitomized by the looming presence of police officers in the area.

Baby is most powerful as a keen observation of the lost people who have slipped through the gaps the system. The film functions as a moving examination into survival, non-biological kinship, and the pursuit of identity within a harsh urban landscape.