Cidade de Deus

Drugs, guns and poverty - a very deadly combination. But sadly there are millions of people in the world today who live sorrounded by such a climate. The City of God is a movie about those people. But this is not a documentary - but a work of art and a brilliant piece of story-telling.




Cidade de deus is a slum (favelas) in the city of Rio de Genero. This movie traces the stories of a few children who grow up in this violent and drug-ridden neighbourhood. The protagonist of the story finally becomes a photographer and successfully escapes the inevitable destiny of becoming a mafia hoodlum. But all the other characters succumb to this eventuality - get dragged deep inside this vicious cycle of killings, arson, drugs, moral depravation and death.




Fernando Meirelles, the director, won rave accolades for the movie. (He deserves each single iota of them). The movie is a harsh picture of reality, but the director manages to give an artistic feel to all the frames. The credit also goes to the cinematography, the music and not the least, the superb acting by all the actors. I watched this movie today, and was later browsing about Brazil. I found out several interesting things - that Sao Paoulo, the economical capital of Brazil, has the highest number of helicopters per capita than any other city (the rich people use helicopters to shuttle between the offices and their residences, thereby avoiding the crime-ridden slums) - that the favelas exist right in the middle of the city (economically and racially seggregating the poor.. sounds a little like Mumbai) - and that Sep 7, i.e today, was the independance day of Brazil !!