Powerful, this movie represents harsh realities.

Rating: 7/10 (9 February 2017)

Normally Brazilian cinema is strong in good comedy but rather unhappy with respect to dramatic films. However, this film is quite different. Most of the action takes place in one of the largest and most dangerous areas of Rio de Janeiro, the so-called "favela" Cidade de Deus (favela is the name that Brazilians give to the slums, where the poorest live, in the midst of total misery). There, people live alongside with crime, knowing that it may be the last day of their lives and having few opportunities to rise in life. In fact, this is not a movie thing, this is reality. The film merely uses reality to stage a story in which two young people take different life paths: one ends up becoming a photographer and the other becomes a drug dealer. These stories are fiction but they are very similar to the lives of immense young people who live in that place. And that's the great advantage of this deeply shocking movie: we know it's all fiction but it could be true.
Most of the actors have no stage experience and were unknown to the audience, but they ended up being known in Brazil, having worked convincingly and credibly. The film has many scenes of violence, but its a kind of violence without the American style, very similar to what we can see in the streets of Brazil. The way the film was shot and edited reminded me a little of the film "Goodfellas" and a style inspired by Scorcese, and there are many critics who immediately established the link between these two films quite obviously. Its a powerful and somewhat shocking movie about a painful social reality that Brazilians should think about solving.