The resulting outcome of the contrast between violence and poverty and a joyful attitude towards the future, present a Rio not always easy to understand, with layers overlapping in a mixture of beauty and harshness.

Gramacho is Latin America’s biggest rubbish dump. People as young as 14 collect recyclable material from the early hours to the evening. A Red Command drug baron controls this extremely dangerous place where the police doesn’t come in. A gram of Cocaine is as cheap as 1 British pound and many working here use it to support the heavy labour and the smell of rotten waste. Murders and robberies are part of the daily routine in this abandoned area of Rio de Janeiro.

The conflicting character of Brazilians living in the Marginal Brazil permeates their dancing for life, squeezed between hope and reality.