Synopsis
Rio de Janeiro, summer of 2010: host of World Cups and Olympic Games, Gay World Capital, dream destination for backpackers and pop stars. Leaving a photo shoot assignment at a gay nightclub at Lapa neighborhood, Henrique, followed by his assistant GUTO, suffers a robbery at gun-point. Two young armed motor-bikers approach their car and steal their photographic equipment. Five seconds later, Henrique and Guto, still in shock, watch the motor-bike being run over through the car's window, including the motor-bikers' bodies flying through the air.
They understand it as the summary execution of the criminals by an unidentified citizen that was casually driving by. A self-appointed avenger, someone weary of feeling defenseless against the urban violence, and who decided to take action. One of the felons manages to escape and flee the scene, the other lies on the asphalt. Taken by the feeling of vengeance, against his young and traumatized assistant's will, Henrique recovers his Hasselblad camera, fallen next to the dying criminal's body, and they leave feeling renewed.
But the story becomes entangled a few moments later, when Henrique returns to the crash scene alone in hopes that he can find his memory card with the night's photographs. In a surprising turn, Henrique falls under the suspicion of a Police Officer. From that moment, he is trapped in a situation where he is now the criminal for failing to rescue a victim who had previously been his aggressor. Obliged to go to the nearest Police Department for clarifications, he is interrogated by Inspector FREIRE, who takes his testimony in an attempt to organize a police report and to understand what really happened.
In the midst of the procedure, a radio call to the Police Department brings the news that a young man whose description matches the outlaw's checked in at the public hospital. Freire drags Henrique with him and obliges the photographer to identify the boy. But it's not the robber.
As the evening goes by and in the midst of the Police bureaucracy, Henrique is confronted with exceptional facts in his life and the situation forces him to get in touch with Rio de Janeiro's backstage of violence, as well as the surprises that the night is yet to unfold.
This is a true story that happened in the evening of August 11th, 2007.
In terms of violence and social disintegration, Brazil goes beyond fiction. And society reacts as it manages, mixing impunity and intolerance. Signs of a non-declared civil war. AE - AUTO EXPOSURE narrates a scathing night in the life of HENRIQUE, a professional photographer born and living in Rio de Janeiro, involved in a situation of common violence, in which he does not know whether he is victim, witness or accomplice. A hot-blooded plot, attempting to capture one moment in a man’s – or every Brazilians' – life.
During Henrique's trajectory, all Brazilian social behavior can be reviewed, comparing levels of urban violence and barbarism, at a time when a character called Capitão Nascimento, from the movie Elite Squad, is considered a national hero.
In an acting and plot oriented film with no room for the pretense of being a sociological thesis, the only intent is to speak openly to a wide audience.
Bewilderment is the driving force of this plot that follows Henrique impartially. Testifying his conflicts and all nuances of his personality confronting a situation with no other alternative: killed or killer. To the spectator, feel what he feels, doubt like he doubts. To get confused as he does. And to think about it. With this in mind, subplots compose a narrative mosaic and brewing the actions of secondary characters that will, progressively, echo over the main plot.