So here we go, first start is a movie released in 2002. Old, huh? It is not a mainstream movie and wasn’t shown in most theaters, but finding its DVD couldn’t be that hard. I’m not sure though, if it’s sold in the pirated section in Quiapo. This was considered a breakthrough film in their country, as the reality of the life of the poor was often glossed over in movies previously released.
City of God is a Brazilian film, directed by Fernando Meirelles with Katia Lund, which tells a real story of three decades of unrest in underground Rio de Janiero. Back in the 1960s, the slums of the city were taken over by youth gangs and only relinquished their hold in the mid-1980s. This is a story of a place Cidade de Deus, a poor housing project where organized crime and drugs flourished and became one of the most dangerous places in Rio de Janeiro.
In this place, grew two young boys who each took a different path: one became a drug dealer, while the other a photographer. Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) was someone who is smart enough to realize that he is too frail to be an outlaw and decided to view his world through the lens. Li’l Dice or Li'l Ze (Leandro de Hora), on the other hand, dreamt of becoming the most dangerous criminal in the city.
This is a story of the passage of the place and the boys who had considered this forsaken place their home. In here, we could see the great division between the rich and the poor. How the destitute were left to their own devices and the affluent not caring what happens to their poor brothers.
Though riddled with violence, this journey to the netherworld where drugs and organized crime are a way of life is above all enlightening and affecting. It is a movie to awaken your senses, incite you and definitely elicits a response.
The way it was shown with flashiness in the visuals, style of cutting back and forth in time, and in somewhat overexposed glow made the viewer feel a bit numb from its violence. It was so heartbreaking to watch boys at the ages between seven to seventeen running around the street brandishing guns in their hands. And the line given by a young boy of probably the age of ten really tugged my heart: “I’ve snorted drugs, robbed, and killed. I am a man.”
Based on a book written by Paolo Lins, who himself grew-up in the City of God, this film was nominated to four Oscars, won a BAFTA film award for editing, considered as a Best Foreign Film by the New York Film Critics Circle and Independent Spirit, and received a Visions Award Special Citation in the Toronto International Film Festival.
Watch it and maybe you’d say what the main character said in the beginning of the film: “A picture could change my life.”
2 comments:
Ngangot! Nag-rent lang din po ako... Punta ka sa MJ sa 4th floor sa Tampines Mall.
other interesting tidbits about the movie is that it was actually shot on location, and the director had to ask permission from the local druglords (it is no-man's land for the police), and it engaged the services of non-professional actors.
All of which does not distract from the fact that this is one hell of a directorial debut!
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