One word: exhilarating

Rating: 9/10 (27 August 2012)

Fernando Meirelles' poignant and somewhat bittersweet debut ranks among the greatest and most iconic films to be made. Cidade de Deus delivers a rather terrifying narrative of a person caught in the middle of two warring drug mules. The film's transition from chaos to utter stillness, the real to the metaphorical, escalated the feeling of disorder, panic, and euphoria. Interspersed with the story are tales of corruption, greed, innocence, and the primal nature of man. The film showcased the very definition of character development, with the flawless screenplay mockingly fixed on the first person account of the protagonist, every character experienced several surprising twists in their personalities.
Cidade de Deus worked on several levels, the pitch perfect cinematography capturing the very best of the on screen chaos and the aridness of the setting itself, the brilliant direction, the fast-paced, engaging, yet structurally composed screenplay, even the morally convoluted context; all of which made the film as magnificent as it is.