Brainstorm (Portuguese: Bicho de Sete Cabeças) is a 2000 drama film directed by Laís Bodanzky based on the autobiographical book Canto dos Malditos by Austregésilo Carrano Bueno [pt].

The film was made through a partnership between Brazilian and Italian studios and starred Rodrigo Santoro, Othon Bastos and Cassia Kiss.

The film tells the story of Neto, a young man who is admitted to a psychiatric hospital after his father discovers he is a user of marijuana.

Bodanzky read Carrano's book in 1996 and, impressed by the theme, assigned Luiz Bolognesi to adapt it into a film and transpose its setting from the 1970s to the 1990s.

It is followed by a flashback to explain the story; Neto, a São Paulo middle-class teenager, has a troubled relationship with his father and his mother, Meire.

Rogério also tells him not to consume the medications administered by nurses because it awakes the appetite in order to make patients look healthier.

That night, Neto, after doping a nurse, goes to the hospital stockroom and asks the inmate Biu[note 1] to set fire to a stack of drugs.

Laís Bodanzky read the autobiographical book Canto dos Malditos by Austregésilo Carrano Bueno [pt] for the first time in 1996,[6] when she was signed to assist with the direction of a documentary on the subject.

[6] Bolognesi was reluctant as he considered it a complicated subject; he was close to giving up until he read and was touched by Paulo Leminski's presentation of the book.

"[10][11] The first version of the script was written in June 1997 during a trip for the project Cine Mambembe,[12] which screens Brazilian films around the country in places where the people cannot pay for or do not have access to movie theaters.

[13] The trip and the screenings helped Bolognesi to write the screenplay as he "learned that the slightest loss of attention could be mortal and irreversible.

When I compare these horror institutions with extermination houses, it is not only because 80% of the inmates died or turned into residents there, but also for the physical and chemical prison to which we are subjected, in other words, a living death that brings us to [a state of] zombiism.In adapting the book, Bolognesi considered the work as his inspiration but felt free to create situations or characters and to modify the personality of the characters.

[18] Bodanzky considered the screenplay a key element of the production of Brainstorm; it was her only way of attracting a good cast and staff because it was her first feature film.

[6] It aroused the interest of lead actors Santoro, Bastos, Kiss, and the producers Sara Silveira, Caio and Fabiano Gullane.

"[20] Santoro read the book and was "shocked," which led him to contact Carrano; after talking to the author, he was convinced to take the role.

"[21] To prepare himself for the role, he talked with interns and watched productions on the subject, among them the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Miloš Forman.

[9] Sérgio Penna, a theatrical director and a theater guest professor at University of São Paulo, coordinated the cast preparation.

His primary aim was to deconstruct the "superficial figure, stereotyped and crystallized by prejudice" image about psychiatric hospitals and the people who live there.

[2] Bodanzky and Bolognesi spent four months in Trieste, Italy, editing the film along with Italian editors Jacopo Quadri and Letizia Caudullo.

On the airplane back to Italy, they rewrote the screenplay; they focused more on Neto and removed minor characters and subplots, while emphasizing the son-father relationship.

[25] The film was finalized in October at the Cinecittà studio in Rome, using the THX mixing technology and the standard Dolby Digital.

Folha de S.Paulo's deemed it "a portrait of hell in motion," "painted with such passion, competence and integrity" which makes it "both a torment and a pleasure."

The newspaper commented that all Bodanzky's choices are "unerring", that the documentary tone "amplifies the incisiveness of history" and the natural dialogue, and that "the absence of proselytism facilitates the entry of the viewer in the universe of characters.

"[43] Ivan Claudio of IstoÉ Gente praised all of the cast including the extras, whose "wandering like zombies in the courtyards of the asylum ... contribute to the realistic climate of the film."

Derek Elley of American magazine Variety said that with "an unattractive palette of cold, blue-green hues, pic does little to build sympathy for its protagonist or any of the other characters, and flashy visual effects for Neto's mental dislocation add to the viewer's own alienation.

"[1] The Hindu's Gautaman Bhaskaran dubbed it "extremely gripping", "disturbing"; ultimately, he declared it has a "morbidity" and a "sense of truth, bitter and brutal".

[48] Writing for Indian magazine Outlook, Namrata Joshi praised it as "stylishly shot, alternating between a cinéma vérité view of the Brazilian family life and MTV images of the underground Sao Paolo [sic] youth culture."

"[49] Similarly, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, a Swiss newspaper, criticized it for relying too much on special effects and for not presenting a deeper insight in the emotional conflict.