A feature-length documentary that dissects the hard life of the rural workers who live by cutting sugarcane in the center-west of São Paulo. Among other information, the film reveals that, of the almost 230 million tons of sugarcane that Brazil produces annually, manually, a single worker can harvest 20 tons of cane per day. More: the average payment is R$ 0.10 per square meter cut. Vida em Cana investigates what may be the last generation of cutters in the history of Brazil, since, by determination of the federal government, all farming must be mechanized by 2015. The director and his team spent four months on plantations in the region of Dois Córregos, conducting interviews and closely monitoring the daily lives of farmers, in which illiteracy, lack of access to health care and exploitation of unskilled labor are common currency. Among the testimonies, the one of two workers who managed to fulfill an old dream: to visit the McDonald's cafeteria in Bauru stands out.
—Jorge W Atalla