A True Story Very Well Told

Rating: 9/10 (20 February 2004)

When I decided to watch "Cidade de Deus", I was rather hesitant. Although I had heard positive comments for the film, there were several things that were putting me off: The shoot-em-up story did not sound original, the actors were amateur, the language and location were not so familiar. However I devided to give it a try.
Well, it proved to be a very wise move by my side: "Cidade de Deus" is simply an excellent film. The story might not be that original but is very interesting and very well-told. The "amateur" actors are superb, and perform much better than many professional ones. The language and location may not sound familiar at the beginning, but the masterful director soon gets you quickly entwined with the environment; in fact, he is maybe the greatest asset of this production, as he does an excellent job in providing us with a top-notch direction.
What you see is sometimes so surreal (a poor ghetto community totally isolated from the "normal" parts of Brazil, small children toying with drugs and guns, people showing a complete lack of respect for human life, etc.) that you tend to think it is a bit exaggerated. Sadly, it is not: The story is true, and many if the actors that play in it are actual inhabitants of this kind of ghetto communities. The film should awake many of us who sometimes tend to feel that our comfortable lives are the norm in this world, when in fact they are rather the exception.
"Cidade de Deus" gets a 9/10 by me.