The film tells the true story of Fernando Ramos da Silva, a boy from the slums who suddenly comes to fame as the criminal urchin Pixote in Hector Babenco’s international film success Pixote, a lei do mais fraco from 1981. Quem matou Pixote? tells the story of events afterwards. His mother, who has sold lottery tickets, didn’t have to work any more and Fernando bought a house for his family. When the money was all gone, things went downhill fast: a dramatic example of life imitating art ensued. Fernando tried for years to find work as an actor, yet despite his best intentions he found himself getting involved in crime. In 1987, at the age of only nineteen, he was surrounded in a slum by police. His brief and apparently senseless life was ended by eight direct hits to the body.The script for the film was based on books by José Louzeiro, the author who was also behind Babenco’s film, and on stories by Cida Venâncio Silva, Fernando’s widow. The film focuses on the reality of Brazil: Fernando’s tragic fate reflects the social inequality in the country. The film tries to show that there are lots more Pixote’s, living on the fringe between poverty and death. Quem matou Pixote? won all the important prizes at the last Gramado Film Festival in Southern Brazil.
