CRUSHINGLY good!!!!

Rating: 9/10 (25 January 2003)

This film is breathtaking, yet it does get slow in a few places. Nevertheless, it is a film that is incredibly eye opening for this country of Brasil and its culture of violence in the favelas (slums).
It's also a gripping tale show casing one young boys desire to somehow get out of the madness, where if anything life is cheap. The fact that it is based on a true story (what parts those are, I am not certain) is even more chilling, particularly the end credits in which a real tv interview with a gang leader was taken word for word in the film.
Probably the greatest triumph of the film is its ability to show that violence is cyclical and that in a culture where only guns and death exists there is almost no escape no matter how moral you might be, or try to do what is right.
An amazing picture.
Rating 9 out of 10