Customers trapped in the cinema
The Oscar-nominated trailer for “The Rejects” ended up being more realistic than anyone could have imagined. It turns out that a group of customers at a cinema in Botafogo, in the southern region of Rio de Janeiro, ended up trapped inside the facility after staff forgot about the session, left and locked the doors.
It all happened at the end of Saturday (27) at Estação Net Rio, one of the most traditional cinemas in the region. A video clip posted on the Internet showed people's anger when they realized that they would not be able to get out without help.
“It's 11:40 p.m […] There's a group here, trapped in this cinema, and it's ridiculous. We are locked up, we are calling the police and the fire department, because the Estação Net group has locked everyone here and we cannot get out.”Professor Marcelo Alonso Moraes complained on his Instagram account, while showing off the bars in the background. look:
The case also reached O Globo newspaper, which described the testimony of another witness. According to retiree Ruth Kaufman (70 years old), the group of 40 people tried to explain the situation to the patrons of the bar next to the cinema. According to her, it took about half an hour for help to arrive.
“At that moment, we just wanted freedom. We didn't know how to move on. It was like we were orphans there. Look, what a drama, isn't it? We were left jobless, desperate. We had just watched 'The Rejects.' And we feel like this: rejected.”“, Ruth recalled. Interestingly, the plot of the film depicts three people left in a boarding school in the United States during Christmas.
Before noticing the closed doors, the retiree highlighted that the agents were surprised that the lights were not on in the room where the film was shown, but panic came when they saw the bars. The police and firefighters were called, but the people who settled the situation were the cinema employees themselves.
The case quickly spread across the street and ended up arriving at Estação Net Botafogo, a movie theater run by the same group located just a few blocks from Estação Net Rio, where all the mayhem happened. Fortunately, the institution's officials were there and returned to the scene to free the trapped spectators.
In a note to the newspaper, Adriana Ratis, co-founder of Grupo Estação, expressed her regret over what happened and stressed that something like this had never happened. “It was terrible, and no one imagined it could happen. After 40 years of work, if we had done it more than once, we wouldn't be working now. We've been dwelling on this issue all week. Imagine if those people had spent the night inside? I have nightmares just thinking about it.”And highlighted.
It also apologized to the group that was affected and asked customers to contact the cinema to obtain compensation. “In addition to apologizing, we want to try to offer something nice to the public, after such a huge inconvenience. This does not mean that we will solve this problem or make up for it… but we want to show that, yes, we are very concerned about what happened, we are upset.”he added.
Finally, it also explained that the employees who caused the unexpected event were temporarily removed, “in order to maintain the common sense of not jeopardizing anyone’s job.” During the pandemic, Estação Net Rio raised about R$700,000, through crowdfunding campaigns, to confront a serious financial crisis.
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