Like The Red Light Bandit, a classic from the Udigrudi or Underground movement. The Angel Is Born follows two wastrels, the white Santamaria, mystical and violent, and his more naive black partner-in-crime, Urtiga. They wreak havoc in Rio while awaiting Santamaria's avenging angel. But redemption is for another kind of movie: The Angel Is Born is as far from the sociology of realism-even from Cinema Nôvo-as can be, both in style and moral stance. "The film itself represents a cool and tranquil kind of criminality, an audio-visual assault and battery...a nihilistic gesture directed against the hypocritical discourse of power" (Robert Stam). "A savage and bewitching film" (NFT, London).