Images that can never fade

Rating: 9/10 (23 February 2003)

To say that 'Cidade de Deus' is anything less than a masterpiece is surely a travesty of free speech. Held here in this film lies a harrowing truth of life in the City of God. Through this film we feel the breath of gang leader Li'l Zé; a hood whose reign in the town land starts a war that destroys the lives of countless numbers of his neighbors.
The stylistic rendering of this film is both unique and brilliant. Shot in an ageless style surely this movie will pass as a transcendent piece of work that teaches us how cinema needs to be.
Busca-Pé, our young narrator receives his escape from this violent world through the lens of a camera; finding a hope in hell. The real protagonist of this town land, however, is the ground itself and the blood that flows over it.
You will see a thousand stories in this film; in every shot there is something that you have never before imagined; beauty in life and in death images that can never fade.