Explores a world or violence and moral ambiguity rarely depicted on film

Rating: 8/10 (30 January 2003)

The most moving moment in a trip I made to Brasil occurred when I visited a community school in the slums (favelas). These children were desperately trying to better themselves  the school (paid for from community and rotararian funds with no government help) was their *only* chance to get out of the cycle of hopelessness and crime. The awful dilemma was that the community and its inhabitants were protected and supported (with no strings attached) by the local drugs and gun running infrastructure. I was safer there than on the streets of Copacabana  no-one would harm a tourist as that might attract police attention (bad for business). One infraction to law and order would mean a warning  the second, death.
City of God looks at the slum area (a slightly less criminalised one than the one I visited) some years not to long ago as it evolved towards this position. The honest struggles of a teenager to break the mould, and the enormous pressures on his less intelligent peers to enter the short lived occupation of gangster. There are many moral challenges the audience is forced to confront, including the many shades of villains that accept a certain degree of criminality in order, at least in part, to do some good in an environment where the worst are very bad indeed and even the police are generally known to be more corrupt than some of the drug-runners.
This is a monumental film ,bravely told and skilfully put together. It opens a world that is largely unseen by the developed West, telling a nail-biting story that accurately reflects generations of children and adults lost to a world we wouldn't wish on anyone. Queasiness at an opening scene where live chickens are beheaded for the cooking pot is soon put into insignificance as we realise the horrific cheapness of human life. This rollercoaster ride of a movie leaves you with very uncomfortable questions about the nature of goodness. Even thinking back to it now brings tears to the corners of my eyes.