At dawn, on February 22nd, 1998, part of the Palace II building collapsed, leaving eight victims and more than 170 families homeless. The building was planned by the Brazilian construction company SERSAN, a company owned by the politician Sérgio Naya. At the time, several reports of precarious material quality and design errors were related.
Nowadays, more than 20 years later, most part of the residents did not receive the restitution, which they are entitled. Sérgio Naya was not convicted and died in 2009, leaving millions in debt and the largest civil suit in Latin America.
This is one of the biggest tragedies in the history of Brazilian civil engineering and a historical landmark of impunity in the country. The movie seeks to give voice to the victims forgotten by the authorities and the Brazilian society.
There is no way to portray the fall of Palace II without thinking of tragedy as the result of social inequality in Brazil. A true portrait that goes far beyond the building shows the drama of how the impunity in the country reaches the common people. It is about the incessant search for profits, politicians who believe to be above the law, the connivance of public power and the slow Brazilian legal system. In the civil sphere, after more than 20 years, the former residents have not yet received all the compensation to which they are entitled. In the criminal sphere, even with technical experts’ report pointing out multiple causes that imply guilt for those involved in the construction, no one was arrested. Although revoked in Congress, perhaps due to bureaucratic issues, the technical lead of the construction and former politician Sérgio Naya lived until his last days unpunished for the crimes. The film is made from the point of view of the former residents who just want it all to end.
‘Palace II - 3 Quartos com Vista para o Mar” is a co-production between Viralata Produções, Globo Filmes, Globo News, Urca Filmes and distributed by Pagu Pictures.