Film Analyses - Cidade de Deus (foreign film)

Cidade de Deus (city of God)

City of God is a remarkable film production and probably the most important film of all Brazilian history. Produced in 2002 and directed by Fernando Meirelles, the movie portrays the reality of poor Brazilian kids that grow living in the favelas and dealing with aim for recognition, power, drugs and violence.

The story starts back in the 70’s when the two main characters were boys living in a favela called Cidade de Deus, city of God. Favelas are very poor neighborhood, usually with poor access to power and water. Streets usually don't have pavement, the houses are tiny and many of them have carbon box as part of the structure material.

There was a gang ruling the game in the favela, which eventually gets dismissed. 

 With the lack of leadership one of the boys start taking the lead as he grows. He gets allies and practice extreme violence to keep his power over the community and the drug cartel.

The other boy also grows up but he gets involve in photography. His brother, one of the original gang leaders was shot by the police so he tries to avoid violence and drug gangs. Eventually he gets an intern in a local newspaper and his pictures of the gangs in the favela gain mainstream.

At the end the gangs fight each other and then against the police. The drugdealer is killed by a kid who now is aiming to be new leader, and the photographer capture a photo of the action as well as a photo of a policeman practicing extreme violence. The movie finish with him wondering which picture he should submit to the newspaper and the consequences of it.

Cidade de Deus was such an important film production for Brazil and the worldwide film industry for different reasons. First, it generated a shift on brazilian style of producing films. It also impacted the content of those productions as well. This was so significant that the baptize it as a new film genre: the favela’s films. These are stories have the favelas as the main location and explore the reality of dealing with drugdealers, police enforcement, lack of opportunity and explicitly violence.

The second important issue, is that this movie provoked a social discussion. Favelas are segregated neighborhood where nobody that don't live on it wants to get close by. People live there but it some terms are forgotten there. The chances a kid got shoot and buried on the ground is extremely higher than getting into college and eventually having a decent job. A third aspect connect with the previous one  was that in consequence of the international buss,, middle and upper classes got concerned about the view of  Brazil as a country and society was being portraited abroad. Businessman were afraid that this movie and new ones that came after would affect the tourism to cities like Rio de Janeiro, where the movie took place and there are many favelas until now. Ironacly the tourism didn’t slow down, but increased and many international visitors started to take tours to favelas where they could have a taste of “Cidade de Deus”. 

Finally, Cidade de Deus many sources as Empire, Time and Rotten Tomatoes considere this movie one of the best movies of all times. The storytelling, the script dynamics and how easily involves you even if you were not Brazilian is fantastic. The movie was nominated to Oscar in four categories: best director, best adapted script, best photography and best editing.