Boasting myriad prestigious film festival accolades and billed as the Brazilian Goodfellas by some, Fernando Meirelles� five-years-in-the-making visual masterpiece is based on eyewitness accounts of the rise of the riots and the unforgiving drug and gun violence in Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s. Told through the narrative of young photographer Rocket, we follow the stories of a number of key players in the events, beginning with early life in the eponymous City of God, the slum areas on the outskirts of Rio, inhabited by the forgotten poor people of the city, ignored by the government and where, especially amongst the adolescent contingent, tough times and oppression call for tough measures of aggression. Determined to succeed and rise from the gutters, groups of armed youths hold up a seedy local hotel, some of them little more than children.
When a bloodbath ensues, instigated by the youngest and most bloodthirsty of the gang, the authorities and angry locals take out their vengeance on the some of the suspects whilst others go into hiding. We are then transported to mid-1970s where surviving members of the gang and other residents of the City of God are fast becoming embroiled in the rising drug trade. At the forefront of the troubles is the psychotic L�il Ze who takes no prisoners in his attempts to rule the city�s underground. From here we see how the lives of a vast number of youths are drawn into the world, some a slave to their own addictions, others attracted to the power of arms. As a narrator, Rocket is the outsider looking in, knowing personally the very people who are a threat to his society. His ambition to be a photographer is perfectly suited to this observer role and pretty soon his opportunities lead him deep into the dangerous world he is trying to escape.
Rightly praised, director Meirelles owes a heavy debt to Tarantino. Indeed the film is a combination of Reservoir Dogs� ultra-violence and Pulp Fiction�s fractured, intricate storytelling. Similarities can also be drawn to Alejandro Gonz�lez I��rritu�s excellent Amores Perros in its portrayal of the darker side of surburban South America. Wringing amazing performances from a mostly inexperienced cast, it is an emotionally intense thrill a minute, expertly edited to provide some wonderful and brave moments of cinematography like the bullet-eye views during gun-clashes. What is even more astounding is that this level of intensity is maintained for the entire two-hour duration of the film. What also helps is that the narrator is such a warm and human character with whom the audience can connect from the outset. Compelling and imaginative, an absolute gem. |
