Marcelo Caetano speaks with an openness that draws you in before you realise it. Memories of São Paulo arrive in vivid fragments, shaping the world behind Baby with surprising clarity. Emotion is the centre of everything. “We cannot avoid our emotions,” Marcelo reflects. “Growth comes from going toward them.”

Baby follows eighteen year old Wellington, known as Baby, who leaves juvenile detention with no home to return to. The old downtown of São Paulo becomes a landscape of risk and possibility. A meeting with Ronaldo, a mature sex worker, forms a connection shaped by desire, conflict and the instinct to survive. The bond they build is fragile and complex. It mirrors a city that never rests.

Baby developed during a difficult cultural moment in Brazil, shaped by political pressure and reduced support for queer stories. Marcelo returned often to the voices of young people who had been pushed out of their homes. “The story had to grow from what these young people shared,” he explains. That choice shaped every part of the film.

Sound, movement and colour carry the story as strongly as the characters. Trains pass beneath rooms. Music drifts through open windows. “Silence does not belong to these characters,” Marcelo says. The city becomes part of their emotional life.

Baby screened at Cannes in competition for the Queer Palm, and Marcelo later returned as a member of the Queer Palm jury. The film has travelled widely, reaching festivals and audiences far beyond Brazil.

A final thought rests at the heart of his work. “Young queer people deserve room to explore,” he says. “Talk to others, try things, and create the families you need. That freedom matters.”

Read the full interview in F*3 out in January 2026.