Social apartheid

Rating: 8/10 (20 March 2004)

This is like a documentary with nervous shivering camera work, but still telling a story and telling it in a good way. The movie has a rumour of being very violent and it is of course, because of the subject: Gang wars in Rio.
However, the camera mostly moves away when the violence occurs, but you still get the message. This is a kind of slum, which you seldom find in the West. It's a slum were rising fear and murders are the only way to get dignity and where the police force applauds this and sell you more weapons. It might have to with the color of your skin, but mostly of the fact that you are poor. It's social apartheid.
The weakest part here is maybe the story in itself, for this is in fact how gangster movies were narrated already in the 30s. It's not a punch in the stomach as some commentators have told you, but it might make you start thinking.