The documentary portrays the everyday life of the traffickers and residents of the Santa Marta favela in Rio de Janeiro. The result of two years (1997 - 1998) of interviews with people directly linked to the traffic of narcotics, with residents who glimpse this routine closely and police, the documentary draws a parallel between the speeches of residents, traffickers and police, placing all On the same level of involvement in a war that is not a "civil war", but a "private war".

The title of the Salles documentary is found in the content of one of the interviews; In the speech of former BOPE captain Rodrigo Pimentel. Other important lines present in the interviews denounce the social apartheid in which the population of Rio de Janeiro is, as well as a public security authority: "(...) the police must be corrupt and violent, we make the security of the State, (...) we have to keep the excluded under control. We live in an unjust society and the police guarantee this unjust society