page_title: Shanty town
section_title: In popular culture
hierarchical_section_title: Shanty town / In popular culture
caption_attribution_description: English: A shanty town in Manila, beside the Manila City Jail. This picture was taken from Recto LRT Station.
context_page_description: A shanty town or squatter area is a settlement of improvised buildings known as shanties or shacks, typically made of materials such as mud and wood. A typical shanty town is squatted and in the beginning lacks adequate infrastructure, including proper sanitation, safe water supply, electricity and street drainage. Over time, shanty towns can develop their infrastructure and even change into middle class neighbourhoods. They can be small informal settlements or they can house millions of people.
  Globally, some of the largest shanty towns are Ciudad Neza in Mexico, Orangi in Pakistan and Dharavi in India. They are known by various names in different places, such as favela in Brazil, villa miseria in Argentina and gecekondu in Turkey. Shanty towns are mostly found in developing nations, but also in the cities of developed nations, such as Athens and Madrid. Cañada Real is considered the largest informal settlement in Europe. They are usually found on places such as railway sidings, swampland or disputed building projects.
context_section_description: Many films have been shot in shanty towns. Slumdog Millionaire centres around characters who spend most of their lives in Indian shanty towns. The Brazilian film City of God was set in Cidade de Deus and filmed in another favela, called Cidade Alta. White Elephant, 2012 Argentinian movie, is set in a villa miseria in Buenos Aires. The South African film District 9 is largely set in a township called Chiawelo, from which people had been forcibly resettled.
  The 2016 Chinese TV series Housing tells the story of shantytown clearance in Beiliang, Baotou, Inner Mongolia.
  Video games such as Max Payne 3 have levels located in fictional shanty towns.
  Reggae singer Desmond Dekker sang a song called "007 (Shanty Town)".
caption: A shanty town in Manila, Philippines.
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