WITH a shotgun pointed at her head, Beatriz took a deep breath and tried to remain calm.

She'd driven to the outskirts of Sao Paulo in search of her missing brother.

A gang of men wielding knives and carrying guns surrounded her car chanting: "Poor little rich girl".

Beatriz opened her window and demanded to see her brother.

When he finally appeared, Beatriz nodded, told him to get home because mother was worried, and drove off. She was shaken, but this scenario wasn't unusual.

Bia Viana Rosa is 33 and grew up in the shantytowns of Sao Paulo, Brazil, captured so memorably in the Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning 2002 film, City of God.

The life she leads today in Bournemouth with her husband Aaron, 25, a British officer of the Royal Navy, and where she works as a martial arts instructor is a different world.

Bia's tale isn't rags to riches; it's a tale of personal and spiritual enlightenment that led her to Bournemouth, where she's lived for the past five years.

Standing in her kitchen, listening to her stories as she cooks up an evening meal for her husband, you'd be forgiven for questioning whether what Bia says is true. It's like a nightmare about gangs, violence and religious struggles.

She has tales of dead bodies lying in the gutter while on her way to school, but she tells me that was all part of the gang culture.

Bia is intriguing.

She also makes you appreciate Dorset.

She was raised by a strict, and what she describes as a roguish father, who adored wine, women and gambling. But she tells me he had a good heart.

"My father wanted to give us a better life. He worked hard to provide us with the best, and didn't want us to grow up like the other children in the area. He segregated us from the other children."

Bia says that provoked the other children.

"I was a blond-haired green-eyed Brazilian, not like my brother Daniel and sister Daniella. I was different, I suffered racial attacks. I went to a predominantly black school, so I stood out. I was feisty as well, so that didn't help.

"I refused to accept the life expected of Brazilian women. Most girls were either pregnant by the age of 14 and disgraced, or forced to marry and live a life dedicated to their husband. I wanted my life to be different."

When Bia was 13 she started her first full time job as a hotel receptionist.

"In Brazil, under certain circumstances, children are allowed to work and then go to school during the evening. I lied so I could work.

"I got away with it because my father ran restaurants and bars, and was out at night doing goodness knows what. It was a rebellious phase, I know that."

In some ways, it was the best move Bia made. She discovered an independence that would later open doors and offer her a new life.

But she says the biggest change came when she discovered Capoeira, a martial art that focuses on the soul.

"There are Capoeristas on every street corner in Brazil. It provides an escape. You only ever get judged on your abilities within the martial art. For me it was like entering a different world. It didn't matter whether I was rich or poor, black or white, man or woman. It gave me my emotional balance."

Suddenly Bia had a focus, and she landed herself a job in IT. She spent every lunch hour watching, learning and making notes.

After a years study, Bia got a job as a technical support analyst, and within a year she had worked her way up to a senior position.

In 1998 she joined IBM. She was living the high life; partying, socialising and spending money, But something was missing; she couldn't figure out what.

"I never thought about going to England, it hadn't crossed my mind. I loved Brazil."

Then a friend asked if she wanted to join her in England.

"Everyone was talking about England. Everywhere I went there were signs directing me to England! Then I went to a Capoeira meeting and something happened, and the instructor said I would be going to England. I eventually gave in!"

When Bia arrived in Bournemouth she couldn't speak a word of English. She started work in a pizza factory, working nine hours a day with only a 20-minute break.

"I didn't understand a word. I'd sit smiling, saying yes to everything."

Her first few months were rocky. She was thrown out of a friend's home and left homeless. Not speaking the language became a real problem. One kind Samaritan, a Russian man, helped her get back on her feet.

Today Bia's life is very different.

Bia says: "I have a perfect life. I don't have much money but I'm richer than I've ever been. I send money home to my mother, who is now separated from my father, and I visit them when I can.

"Things have been rocky. I had to go home to sort out my brother who'd been shot, but that made him wake up and realise things had to change. He's now got a daughter and works as a missionary in prison and with orphans. Life is very different.

"I've changed a lot as a person too and that's down to living here. People in England don't judge you by material things like they do in Brazil. I sometimes wish the people here could see how fortunate they are to grow up in Dorset."

Bia teaches Capoeira at the Dolphin Sports Centre in Poole on Tuesdays, 8-9pm and at Bournemouth University on Saturday, 5-6pm. For more details visit origensdobrasil.net