REVIEW: City of God (2003)

December 12, 2017 Add Comment Edit

Two boys growing up in a violent neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro take different paths: one becomes a photographer, the other a drug dealer.

Directors: Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund

"City of God is a coming-of-age film, a surprise, has a thriller sense into it that will take you to the edge of your seat. The difference is unlike the many coming-of-age films that has been coming out in the cinemas these days, it's a war in the Brazilian slums, a killing spree in a dysfunctional place with dysfunctional people.

The movie started with the narration of 18 year old Rocket that grew up in the City of God and is a aspiring photographer. He's in the middle of a stand-off between the gang and the authorities. With him? A chicken.

I somehow wanted to think that the chicken is the best representation of the lives of the people in the slums. It represents how life is easily taken in the place where criminals are so young and the recruits? Not even in their puberty stages. It feels like they were born in violence, grew up killing and most probably death in early adulthood. In their act of desperation, crime and violence is the answer.

City of God is the name of the housing project that was built back in the 1960s to the early 1980s. It was a place of rape, greed, violence, revenge and war all in one. The movie is adapted to the lives of gang leaders back in the days and the two decades of them being the "authority" in the slums.

I wanted to think that sometimes poverty and violence is much worst than power and violence. Come to think of it. If the deprived people could avoid violence and hope is substituted, they are most probably going to be greater than the ones who are in power. But then again, when people are fed up with their worst condition, they feel like maybe there's no other way.

A shocking movie. An enlightenment. An exhausting thriller. A must-see for everyone."

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