If you run, the beast will get you. If you stay, the beast will eat you.

Rating: 9/10 (20 July 2014)

If you cant stomach extremely realistic, gritty and dark shades in a film throughout its 130 minute run-time, its best you don''t watch this film. As there are some movies which showcase only the sunny side of life and dancing among the tall grass and pretty flowers, this one shows exactly the opposite. It presents the true story of a few boys during three decades, the 60's the 70's and the 80's in the most infamous slum of Rio De Janiero - Cidade De Deus (City Of God).
Rocket is the narrator and is a boy who wants nothing to do with crime and instead wants to be a photographer. Li'l Dice/Li'l Z wants to do nothing but crime and wants to be the ruler of the city. The film is mainly about these two opposite individuals and how their paths cross in the city of god where god forgets about you. Whatever you do, you will always get pulled back into the dark circles of crime.
The palette of characters is extremely colorful and includes Benny, Li'l Dice's only friend and the nicest gangster in Rio; Carrot, The drug kingpin who goes up against Li'l Z in an all out war; Mane Galinha or Knockout Ned, who is an expert marksman and becomes a hero and a villain of the city. The Score is incredible and infuses the Brazilian spirit and also gives us the rush during action sequences. The direction is brilliant, Fernando Meirelles was nominated in the 2004 academy awards for best direction rightly. He can be said to be inspired by Quentin Tarantino. The film is like Pulp Fiction or The Goodfellas but with a unique Brazilian taste which makes it more interesting.
The acting is perfect from every actor, even including the bit-part players. The child actors act older for their age, as they have to, and when the older actors come on the screen, you would think that they used the real deal for the true-to-life characters. The Cinematography also deserves special mention and doesn't let us go into a false sense of Brazil's beauty as the scenes of wondrously mesmerizing beaches are shot along with the dark and poverty stricken crowded slums.
The film tells us a story as much as dissects the reason for crime without doing so obviously. The main reason for the crimes and the drug kingdoms seems to be over crowding and ignorance by the government. In this area of Rio, having a gun at the age of 6 is supposed to be normal and crime isn't a vocation but an occupation. It is seldom that films choose to tell such a tale of ugly crime and celebrated evil. The film does have its feel good moments but doesn't try to hide the fact that The Damned live in The City of God. Not for the oversensitive or easily repulsed, this film is truly one of the best foreign language films I have ever seen.