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ITP
classic
Cidade de Deus
The City of God - 2002
*ing: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandre Firmino and Phillipe Haagensen
Directors:
Fernando Meirelles and Katie Lund |
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One
film that continues to disturb you days after watching it is City
of God. As one viewer succinctly put it, "If this is His city,
what does hell look like?"
It is a Brazilian film that takes inspiration from a novel by Paulo
Lins, who actually grew up in the City of God, a real life housing
project in Rio de Janeiro that started in the '60s and by the '80s
was one of the most dangerous places in the world to live in. It is
also partly based on the life of Wilson Rodriguez, a Brazilian photographer.
This is as far away from the postcard pretty beaches of Brazil as
it can get. The children of Cidade de Deus, like all other children,
play |
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their toys with as much innocence and glee. Only their toys aren't
water-squirting guns, but 8mm magnums--the inevitable result of a
conspicuously low number of middle aged people in a crime-infested
swarm of amoral pre-teens, many of whom would be lucky to cross the
age of 20. |
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One
ten-year-old character in the film reacts to being called a child
with a sharp retort, "What do you mean I'm a kid? I kill, I rob,
I'm a man!"
This declaration doesn't demonstrate empty machismo. It signifies
that the lives of these children are so impregnated with crime, that
it defines their very notion of what life is. Peace and security are
alien concepts, and despair isn't a rarity, but a constant lull, like
a mother's firm hand to a toddler, to which you are steadily doomed
till that one inevitable shot ends your own life. Picking up a gun,
then, does not become an act of crime, but the only culture you are
aware of.
The film is a gruesomely heart wrenching two hour and fifteen minutes
experience, but it opens our eyes in the most shocking manner to the
luxuriousness of our own civilized society and how much we take it
for granted.
Think scenes with an apple-cheeked six-year-old boy cornered in an
alley by the neighborhood's most notorious gang, demanding the child
to choose between getting shot in the foot or the hand. |
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The
bawling child puts forward a trembling hand and is shot in the foot
instead. He is warned not to limp as he wobbles away.
The protagonist of the film is actually the city, and no one particular
character, but it is through the eyes of Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues),
an amateur photographer and resident of the City of God, that we make
sense of the people living in it. Rocket aspires to be a professional
journalism photographer and reveals to the outside world a city where
not even combat photographers dared to enter.
Despite being only unassuming morsels at the end of the film, there
are many unforgettable characters weaved into the story. You can't
easily forget Benny, the warm hearted thug everyone orbits around;
he prefers dancing to Kung-Fu Fighting than shooting rivals. Lil Z,
a true sociopath, whose first kill was a brutal, closed-eye shooting
at a motel during which he laughed deliriously as if winning a playstation
game. He was only 9.
There are many simultaneous stories narrated in the film through the
eyes of Rocket. Starting from the Tender Trio to a group of ten-year-old
gangsters called the Runts and the peaceful Knockout Ned who turns
into Lil Z's only rival by the end of the film.
None of these stories, however, lead anywhere. The city remains above
them all. In the end, when the bigwig of the area (Lil Z) is killed
in a shoot-out, another promises to resume the cycle of violence.
Those who do not like violence in films should still try to watch
this one, for only one reason. The violence is not added to earn applause,
like a scene in 300 or Bourne Ultimatum. It is a real story, of lost
childhoods and unrealized dreams. And it changes our perspective of
our own lives.
City of God was Brazil's official entry for the 2002 Oscars. It uses
documentary-style shaky, hand-held cameras and no cuts between scenes.
Its cast includes some 200 non-professional actors and it was shot
on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Not even the filmmakers dared to
venture inside Cidade de Deus. -- Maria Tirmizi |
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