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| Why I love … the depiction of the favela in City of God | Why I love … the depiction of the favela in City of God |
| (4 months later) | |
| City of God is an exhilarating, fast-paced action film set in the oppressive confines of a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I love the way the movie depicts the slum because it compels viewers not just to confront the desperation, poverty and violence of life there, but to enter that nightmarish world so utterly for the duration of the film that leaving it at the end is a relief, and yet a wrench, making it impossible to forget. | City of God is an exhilarating, fast-paced action film set in the oppressive confines of a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I love the way the movie depicts the slum because it compels viewers not just to confront the desperation, poverty and violence of life there, but to enter that nightmarish world so utterly for the duration of the film that leaving it at the end is a relief, and yet a wrench, making it impossible to forget. |
| Directed by Fernando Meirelles, the 2002 film portrays life in the City of God, a favela known by the same name for over three decades, starting in the 1960s when it was a new housing project and its main characters were children and petty thieves, and ending in the early 1980s, by which time the slum is a war zone and most of the protagonists are either dead or engaged in a bloody war over drugs turf. Narrated by Rocket, a boy who dreams of becoming a photographer, the story focuses on the escalating battle between rival gangs led by the murderous Lil Zé and Carrot. | Directed by Fernando Meirelles, the 2002 film portrays life in the City of God, a favela known by the same name for over three decades, starting in the 1960s when it was a new housing project and its main characters were children and petty thieves, and ending in the early 1980s, by which time the slum is a war zone and most of the protagonists are either dead or engaged in a bloody war over drugs turf. Narrated by Rocket, a boy who dreams of becoming a photographer, the story focuses on the escalating battle between rival gangs led by the murderous Lil Zé and Carrot. |
| The favela itself is a central character in the film, which traces its deterioration into anarchic bloodbath: for the 1960s segment, the slum is bathed in a golden light and laughing children kick around a football in open spaces. As Rocket, Lil Zé and his sidekick Benny become teenagers in the 1970s, the streets take on a grey/brown hue. Leaving the favela is shown as going from darkness into light. By the time the community has sunk into all-out war, the favela is portrayed with the detachment of a documentary as Rocket, beginning to distance himself, shoots the killers with his camera. | The favela itself is a central character in the film, which traces its deterioration into anarchic bloodbath: for the 1960s segment, the slum is bathed in a golden light and laughing children kick around a football in open spaces. As Rocket, Lil Zé and his sidekick Benny become teenagers in the 1970s, the streets take on a grey/brown hue. Leaving the favela is shown as going from darkness into light. By the time the community has sunk into all-out war, the favela is portrayed with the detachment of a documentary as Rocket, beginning to distance himself, shoots the killers with his camera. |
| Early on, Rocket explains that the City of God does not resemble the picture postcard version of Rio de Janeiro. The distant mountains and sea are glimpsed occasionally on the horizon, but the containment of the characters within the favela is pretty much absolute. When they do leave the slum, Meirelles avoids lingering on the beauty of the landscape or the civilised order of outside life. Instead he yanks the viewer back into the favela, where he too now belongs. | Early on, Rocket explains that the City of God does not resemble the picture postcard version of Rio de Janeiro. The distant mountains and sea are glimpsed occasionally on the horizon, but the containment of the characters within the favela is pretty much absolute. When they do leave the slum, Meirelles avoids lingering on the beauty of the landscape or the civilised order of outside life. Instead he yanks the viewer back into the favela, where he too now belongs. |
| Life in the favela is faster, more terrifying and yet more vibrant, with an upbeat soundtrack that contributes to the intensity. The effect of this, combined with fast editing which has drawn comparisons with Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, is dizzying. Life-and-death decisions are taken in a breath; bodies fall too quickly to count; there's no time to stop and ponder what's unfolding on the screen. | Life in the favela is faster, more terrifying and yet more vibrant, with an upbeat soundtrack that contributes to the intensity. The effect of this, combined with fast editing which has drawn comparisons with Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, is dizzying. Life-and-death decisions are taken in a breath; bodies fall too quickly to count; there's no time to stop and ponder what's unfolding on the screen. |
| For me, the intense focus on the favela stresses the connection between the oppressive confines of the community and the chaotic, individualistic lives of the gun-toting gangsters. | For me, the intense focus on the favela stresses the connection between the oppressive confines of the community and the chaotic, individualistic lives of the gun-toting gangsters. |
| In their book about the Afro-reggae movement in the favelas of Rio, Culture is Our Weapon, Patrick Neate and Damian Platt refer to the song by US rapper Nas in which he says he thinks of crime when he is in "a New York state of mind" as a way to explain what they call "a favela state of mind". To watch City of God is to be forced to enter – from a safe distance – such a state. For me, this is why it succeeds as such a powerful portrayal of an aspect of life in Rio that had rarely been seen (not even by middle-class Brazilians), which Meirelles has said was his aim. | In their book about the Afro-reggae movement in the favelas of Rio, Culture is Our Weapon, Patrick Neate and Damian Platt refer to the song by US rapper Nas in which he says he thinks of crime when he is in "a New York state of mind" as a way to explain what they call "a favela state of mind". To watch City of God is to be forced to enter – from a safe distance – such a state. For me, this is why it succeeds as such a powerful portrayal of an aspect of life in Rio that had rarely been seen (not even by middle-class Brazilians), which Meirelles has said was his aim. |
| Everything that happens outside the slum, in the world which Rio's favelados call the asfalto (literally, the asphalt or paved area) is a curiosity. When Benny persuades the middle-class drug addict Tiago to buy him some designer clothes and returns to Lil Zé and his gang dressed in jeans and brightly coloured shirt with dyed blonde hair, he looks just as ridiculous to us as to them. | Everything that happens outside the slum, in the world which Rio's favelados call the asfalto (literally, the asphalt or paved area) is a curiosity. When Benny persuades the middle-class drug addict Tiago to buy him some designer clothes and returns to Lil Zé and his gang dressed in jeans and brightly coloured shirt with dyed blonde hair, he looks just as ridiculous to us as to them. |
| The film, adapted from the novel of the same name by Paulo Lins and loosely based on real events, received four Oscar nominations. Meirelles, who filmed amateur actors from the Rio slums, has been accused of glamourising violence, showing excessive detachment towards his protagonists and exaggerating the camaraderie between the gangsters. But I think such criticism misses the point. Meirelles has said the film's main theme is "the waste of lives" in communities like the City of God. The claustrophobic depiction of the favela rams home the point that, in such a context, where police are corrupt, opportunities are scarce and crime is rampant, many youths believe they have no alternative to gangsterism. | The film, adapted from the novel of the same name by Paulo Lins and loosely based on real events, received four Oscar nominations. Meirelles, who filmed amateur actors from the Rio slums, has been accused of glamourising violence, showing excessive detachment towards his protagonists and exaggerating the camaraderie between the gangsters. But I think such criticism misses the point. Meirelles has said the film's main theme is "the waste of lives" in communities like the City of God. The claustrophobic depiction of the favela rams home the point that, in such a context, where police are corrupt, opportunities are scarce and crime is rampant, many youths believe they have no alternative to gangsterism. |
| Rio's favelas were once a no-go topic for Brazil's prime-time soap operas, but have been the setting for several recent ones. Waiting for a flight at São Paulo airport a few months ago, I caught the end of one that showed a blonde actress fleeing timidly through a "favela" with cardboard-looking houses, street lamps and implausibly placid onlookers. It reminded me why I love the depiction of the favela in City of God. | Rio's favelas were once a no-go topic for Brazil's prime-time soap operas, but have been the setting for several recent ones. Waiting for a flight at São Paulo airport a few months ago, I caught the end of one that showed a blonde actress fleeing timidly through a "favela" with cardboard-looking houses, street lamps and implausibly placid onlookers. It reminded me why I love the depiction of the favela in City of God. |
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