Carandiru (2003)

If you thought "City of God" was a strong, worthwhile film, then here is another Brazilian movie for your consideration.  Directed by veteran legend Hector Babenco, it is a prison film based on a book by a doctor who worked at the prison in the '80s to try to educate the inmates about AIDS.  Now there have been numerous prison movies over the years of varying quality, but this one ranks among the very best -- realistic, painful, yet in its way, full of hope.  Carandiru was a notorious gaol near Sao Paolo with over 7000 prisoners in a building meant for half that number.  Babenco not only gives us an idea of the awful conditions in which they lived, but also fleshes out their backstories in a way that we begin to care about these people, however villainous they may have been.  The beginning of the end was a notorious prison riot which could have been quickly settled by the thoughtful warden, but politicians stuck their noses into the situation and innumerable prisoners died needlessly.  Eventually the prison was demolished but not before leaving a web of tragedy and redemption as seen through the doctor's eyes.