When City of God was first screened for film critics in 2003, the official press notes said, “Welcome to the world’s most notorious slum: Rio de Janeiro's “Cidade de Deus,” a place where combat photographers fear to tread, where police rarely go, and residents are lucky if they live to the age of 20. This is the true story of a young man who grew up on these streets and whose ambition as a photographer is our window in and ultimately may be his only way out.”
All of these statements are ture, but to say City of God is about a young photographer is like saying The Godfather is about a family that imports Italian olive oil.
Award Winner
City of God is one of the most beautiful pieces of storytelling ever made and the 48 awards and 21 nominations (including Oscar nominations for its director, cinematographer and screenwriter) attest to this excellence.
Through a Chicken’s Eyes
Director Fernando Meirelles based his movie on the 600 page, semi-autobiographical novel Cidade de Deus by Brazilian journalist Paulo Lins. It is remarkable that the director and screenwriter Braulio Mantovani can tell a complicated story with hundreds of characters in such a way that you always know who is who and what is what. The flavor of the piece begins with the opening sequence where a makeshift barbecue has been set up on packing crates in an alleyway.
The scenes unfold swiftly: a machete blade is being sharpened on a stone. A live chicken is carefully held by two hands. The charcoal fire is ignited. Another chicken with one leg tied to a packing case sees the first chicken killed. The first chicken is plucked. The tied chicken struggles to escape. The first chicken is fricasseed. The second chicken breaks free and escapes down the alley. Someone yells: “Catch that chicken.” Several boys pull handguns from their waistbands only this is not a pretend game of “cops and robbers.”
These guns are real. The bullets whizzing past the chicken and the women and children who happen to be in the way are real. The chicken darst around a corner. A young man with a camera around his neck watches the chicken run towards him. The yell rings out again: “Catch that chicken,” as armored police cars screech to a halt at the end of the street. The boys form a line and point their guns towards the police. The police aim their guns at the boys. The young man turns his head one way and then another as he realizes the danger from both sides. The young man crouches and turns as the camera freezes and the narrator begins the story: “My name is Rocket...”
Lovely, Deadly, Rio
The story follows the lives of children who live in the Cidade de Deus government housing project and aspire to “graduate” to haunt the back alleys of nearby Rio de Janeiro. The impression most of us have of Rio de Jeneiro is of a lovely city with gorgeous beaches populated by thong-clad beauties. In fact, Rio is one of the deadliest places on Earth.
Fresh Cast
To bring this story and setting to the screen, Meirelles wisely chose to cast non-professionals to play his diverse group of soccer-playing youngsters. The results are amazingly fresh and the performances by Alexandre Rodrigues as Rocket, the boy who grows up to be the photographer caught in the street battle and Leandro Firmino da Hora as Li’l Ze, the sociopath who murders his way to becoming the most feared drug dealer in Rio, are absolutely astounding.
Violent Storytelling
City of God is a violent film. During the premiere showing, the brutality of one scene where children are shooting other children caused some members of the San Francisco Film Society to leave the theater. But City of God also has its tender and humorous moments. Rocket’s attempts to find and keep a girlfriend are made even more endearing when his rival steals her away by bleaching his hair and wearing Hawaiian-style shirts “bought with cash from a store downtown.” What girl could resist a charmer like that?
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