Starring: Matheus Nachtergaele, Seu Jorge and Alexandre Rodrigues
Director: Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund
Rated: R
(Portuguese with English subtitles)
CITY of God has to be the most ironically titled film of the year.
To alleviate a housing crisis in Rio de Janeiro, the government relocates the underclass to the outskirts of the city to an area that is euphemistically called the City of God.
It is a slum – deprived, violent and dangerous. Two young boys, Sandro (Matheus Nachtergaele) and Mano (Seu Jorge) call this poverty trap their home. One grows up wanting to be the lord of the most powerful gang in the tenement, and so seeks to dominate the drug market. The other wants to be a famous photographer. Each achieves his ambition, but only one survives the rise to the top.
Based on a true story, this arresting film is magnificently realised. This does not mean it’s easy watching.
It describes a violent, lawless world in such forensic detail that it sometimes feels exploitative. But it’s not just a tourist trip for middle-class cinema-goers. It provides a dramatic story that underscores what people have been saying for years about the cycle of poverty, the causes of crime and the inheritance of disadvantage among the underclass. Thankfully, it also gives us a ray of hope in the midst of social disintegration.
The film’s look perfectly matches the grittiness of its subject matter – grainy exposure, washed-out colour, and sharp contrasting lightning.
The acting is breathtakingly good, especially given that most of the cast have never acted before and were recruited from the actual City of God. No wonder they are completely natural and believable. They are telling the rest of the world about their world.
It may not be the jolliest time you will have in the cinema in 2003, but City of God will provide one of the most challenging and rewarding film encounters this year. It might also give us pause to think about the implication of what we are asking God to enable us to do when we sing, ‘Let us build the city of God, may our tears be turned into dancing !
