City of God is the story of two boys growing up in one of the toughest slums in Brazil, where to survive one must live a life of crime and gangsterism.
The award winning film City of God is based on the true story of two boys growing up in a festering slum near Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s and 1970s. Focusing on the lives of two central characters, Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) and Ze (Leandro Firmino) reflect the danger and uncontrollable violence that comes from selling drugs and brandishing a gun. Rocket has the ambition to become a photographer and escape the murderous chaos within the slum. In contrast, Ze embraces a life of crime and rises to the top of the criminal hierarchy by killing all of his adversaries. The film begins with a flashback to the late '60s when the City of God was a relatively well organized housing project for the poor and dispossessed people of rural Brazil. Innocence and the harmless pastimes of childhood are lost from the start when Rocket recalls his early years. His older brother is already involved in petty theft and is beyond redemption in the eyes of his family and the police. Ze, even at a young age, displays a frightening pleasure to kill bystanders when robbing a small hotel with Rocket's brother and two other slum dwellers.
The two boys grow up and by the late 1970s armed gangs are in control of the lucrative drug trade that has become the only source of employment in the slum. The City of God has turned into a disaster, the mood of the film is darker, the appearance of the slum is uglier, with corrugated iron and tin shacks that have replaced the well manicured houses from the decade before. And, incredibly young hoodlums show no hesitation to use their handguns when settling disputes. At this stage Rocket is too frail for the gangster lifestyle, but realizes when he takes a menial job that an honest living is also a ticket to nowhere. Ze, on the other hand, is at the top of his trade and like most psychotic criminals is determined to punish all who cross him, regardless of how small the offence.
A glimmer of hope for Rocket becomes visible when he is commissioned by a daily newspaper to provide media coverage of the slum which is exploding with gang warfare. The film assumes a lighter, even amusing air when he has his first sexual experience with a fellow reporter. Although he is raised in the same environment as Ze, he does not allow himself to be swallowed by the endless cycle of violence. Things come to a head by 1980 when a full scale war is underway between the last two gangs, which proves to be fatal for Ze who is gunned down at the film's end. It's hard not to feel sympathy for him, a boy who probably didn't have any other choices in his life and also failed to see that a better life is possible.
Brilliant performances all around make for a evening of gripping entertainment. The cast, who are non-professional actors, were hand picked by the director Fernando Meirelles and the dialogue was almost entirely improvised. Taking a tour of a "favela" or slum that cover the hillsides around Rio de Janeiro are now possible, and conditions are improving, slowly. More and more houses are constructed with brick, and there are health care centres and schools. To truly understand the gap between the rich and poor in Brazil, visit Rocinha, Rio's largest favela with 500,000 residents. Other reviews of this film can be read at imdb.com or tribute.ca.
