The Tenants (Don't Like It, Leave)

Valter goes to night school. Iara, his wife, says that the new tenants don't work, that they're probably criminals. Nobody knows where they're from, Iara tells him that they bring women home and cuss all the time. The young guys on the street want to fight it out with them, Valter wants to get some sleep. He doesn't have a gun, he's got a young daughter and son, is at work the whole day, doesn't see what is going on in the neighborhood, hears what his wife tells him, hears the loud music and laughter next door, in the early morning. And can't get any sleep. Who's going to die? Valter doesn't have a clue. —Anonymous In a poor community close to a slum in São Paulo, the hard worker Valter raises his son Diogo and his daughter Fernanda with his wife Iara in the house built by his family. Valter informally works carrying frozen boxes without legal rights and studies at night aiming to be a nurse someday and have a better life. However, his life turns upside-down when Consuelo, who is the ex-wife of his next-door neighbor Dimas, rents her share of their house to a gang of smalltime criminals. Iara presses Valter to take an attitude against their new neighbors that bring women for parties and the loud music does not allow them to sleep. When Valter is near a breakdown, the gang is forced to leave the house. But Consuelo will rent the house to new tenants. —Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil