City of God – by Fernando Meirelles & Katia Lund (2002)
In a favela in Rio de Janeiro, the lives of two young people flow parallel, amidst radically different dreams and ambitions.
“𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦, 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵, 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦.”
Welcome to hell.
When degradation and poverty take the stage and become protagonists, even innocence transforms into an abstract concept.
Children who kill and take their first steps into the world of drug dealing or who clash with the police and engage in violent brawls.
Empty shells of lost souls, thrown to the mercy of criminal life, without any protection, with a state that looks on and intervenes only to ghettoize.
True stories of a generation without a future, of an unknown and submerged humanity that knows no alternatives, so far removed from postcard images.
And the real endeavor remains to survive and somehow reach adulthood, even if to do so one must become ruthless, subjugate others, and carve out one’s own space with force and domination.
Because the war between gangs for control of territory is the only reality that seems to matter and make sense, and becoming the supreme leader brings considerable benefits and infinite respect/fear.
A powerful film that flows swiftly thanks to a frantic pace, with images edited like in an avant-garde music video; the opening sequence is stunning, as it opens and closes the story.
The use of temporal unity, with continuous flashbacks and references, inevitably recalls Tarantino or, for those with a more dated memory, Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange.
But it is violence that serves as the true common thread, in every form of expression. Physical or verbal violence, almost in every scene, at times unbearable but perhaps precisely for this reason damnably essential for describing the photographed reality.
Everything is fateful, and if someone, like the young protagonist, manages to find personal redemption, it is merely an exception that confirms the rule: like being in the right place at the right time and cheating a predetermined fate.
Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Paulo Lins, the film was nominated for four Academy Awards in 2004 and spawned a spin-off titled “City of Men” (TV series).
City of God is a film that cannot leave one indifferent.
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