City of God

Dir: Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund

2003

*****

After making a few short documentaries, an unsuccessful feature and directing various TV shows, Fernando Meirelles made a name for himself with a film called Domésticas about five maids living and working in São Paulo. It was an episodic impressionistic film that relied on observation rather than conventional direction. The five main characters interact with each other, ride busses, work, and discuss their longings, such as husbands, lost family members and dreams of a different career. It was a slice of Brazil that resonated within the country due to its raw authenticity. It gave Meirelles the idea to explore another side of Brazil, a side that many don’t want to talk about – the notourious favelas of Rio. He later said that had he known the dangers of filming the movie in a Rio favela, he wouldn't have made the movie. The film begins with a scene of chickens being prepared for a meal. A chicken escapes and an armed gang chases after it in a favela called the Cidade de Deus ("City of God"). The chicken stops between the gang and a young man named Rocket. A flashback then traces Rocket, the narrator, back to the late 1960s. In the 1960s, the favela is a newly built housing project far from the centre of Rio de Janeiro, with little access to electricity and water. Three impoverished, amateur thieves known as the "Tender Trio" – Shaggy, Clipper and Goose rob and loot business owners. Goose is Rocket's older brother. The thieves split part of the loot with the citizens of the City and are protected by them in return. Several younger boys idolize the trio, and one, Li'l Dice, convinces them to hold up a motel and rob its occupants. The gang resolves not to kill anyone and tells Li'l Dice to serve as a lookout. Instead after Li'l Dice falsely warns the trio that the police are coming, he guns down the motel inhabitants. The massacre is brought to the police's attention, forcing the trio to split up: Clipper joins the church, Shaggy is shot by the police while trying to escape the favela, and Goose is shot by Li'l Dice after taking the thieving boy's money while Li'l Dice's friend Benny, who is Shaggy's brother, watches. In the 1970s, the favela has been transformed into an urban jungle. Rocket has joined a group of young hippies. He enjoys photography and likes one girl, Angélica, but his attempt to get close to her are ruined by a gang of petty criminal kids known as "The Runts". Li'l Dice now calls himself "Li'l Zé". With Benny, he has established a drug empire by eliminating all of the competition, except for a dealer named Carrot. Carrot is a good friend of Benny's and Benny convinces Lil Zé not to go after him. Lil Zé takes over 'the apartment', a known drug distribution center, and forces Carrot's manager Blacky to work for him instead. Coincidentally, Rocket is visiting the apartment to get some drugs off Blacky (who is an old classmate of Rocket's) during the apartment raid and is caught in the middle of it. Through narration, Rocket tells the viewer that he momentarily considers attempting to kill Lil Zé to avenge his brother but decides against it. He is let go after Benny tells Lil Zé that Rocket is Goose's brother. Some time later, a relative peace comes over the City of God under the reign of Li'l Zé, who manages to avoid police attention. Benny decides to branch out of the drug dealer crowd and convinces Tiago, Angélica's ex-boyfriend, to get him some new clothes. Tiago also introduces Benny to his (and Rocket's) group of friends, and Benny and Angélica begin dating. Together, they decide to leave the City and the drug trade. During Benny's farewell party, Zé and Benny get into an argument and Blacky accidentally kills Benny while trying to shoot Li'l Zé. As Benny was the only man holding Lil Zé back from taking over Carrot's business, his death leaves Lil Zé unchecked, and Carrot kills Blacky for endangering his life. Following Benny's death, Lil Zé and a group of his soldiers start to make their way to Carrot's hideout with the intention of killing him. On the way, Lil Zé stops to hit on a girl who dismisses him. Zé follows the girl; beats up her boyfriend, a peaceful man named Knockout Ned (Mane Galinha); and rapes her. After Ned's brother stabs Lil Zé, his gang retaliates by killing his brother and uncle. Ned, looking for revenge, sides with Carrot, and a war breaks out between Carrot and Lil Zé. A year later in the early 1980s, the war continues and even the reason for the war is forgotten. Both sides enlist more "soldiers" and Lil Zé specifically gives the Runts weapons. One day, Lil Zé has Rocket take photos of him and his gang. After Rocket leaves his film with a friend who works at a newspaper office downtown, a female reporter publishes one of the prints, a major scoop since nobody is able to safely enter the City of God anymore. Rocket believes his life is endangered, as he thinks Lil Zé will kill him for publishing the photo of him and his gang. The reporter takes Rocket in for the night, and he loses his virginity to her. Unbeknownst to him, Lil Zé is excited about the picture being published, as he believes that now, people will finally know who he is. Rocket agrees to continue taking photographs, not realizing that Lil Zé is pleased with his increased notoriety. Rocket returns to the City for more photographs, which brings the film back to its opening scene. Confronted by the gang, Rocket is surprised that Zé asks him to take pictures, but as he prepares to take the photo, the police arrive and then drive off when Carrot arrives. In the ensuing gunfight, Ned is killed by a boy who has infiltrated his gang to avenge his father, a civilian whom Ned has shot. The police capture Li'l Zé and Carrot and plan to show Carrot off to the media. Since Lil Zé has been bribing the police, they take Lil Zé's money and let him go, but Rocket secretly photographs the scene. Lil Zé is immediately murdered by the Runts who intend to run the criminal enterprise themselves. The death is also out of revenge for the Runt that Lil Zé had one of his initiates kill. Rocket photographs Zé's dead body and brings both pictures to the newspaper. Rocket contemplates whether to publish the photo of the cops, exposing corruption and becoming famous, or the photo of Li'l Zé's body, which will get him an internship at the newspaper. He decides on the latter and the film ends with the Runts walking around the City of God, making a hit list of the dealers they plan to kill to take over the drug business, including the Red Brigade, as well as people they simply don't like. It is a terrifying look at the senselessness and violent circle that the country’s poor have found themselves in. The authenticity of the film comes down to the location and the fact that none of the characters were actors. Only Matheus Nachtergaele (Central Station, Four Days in September) was a professional actor, everyone else were from real-life favelas, and in some cases, even the real-life City of God favela itself. According to Meirelles, amateur actors were used for two reasons: the lack of available professional black actors, and the desire for authenticity. Meirelles explained: "Today I can open a casting call and have 500 black actors, but back in 2000 this possibility did not exist. In Brazil, there were three or four young black actors and at the same time I felt that actors from the middle class could not make the film. I needed authenticity." Beginning around 2000, about a hundred children and young people were hand-picked and placed into an "actors' workshop" for several months. In contrast to more traditional methods (e.g. studying theatre and rehearsing), it focused on simulating authentic street war scenes, such as a hold-up, a scuffle, a shoot-out etc. A lot came from improvisation, as it was thought better to create an authentic, gritty atmosphere. This way, the inexperienced cast soon learned to move and act naturally. After filming, the crew could not leave the cast to return to their old lives in the favelas. Help groups were set up to help those involved in the production to build more promising futures. The film had a huge impact, especially as the gangs featured resembled the real life gangs perfectly. The Runts were almost exactly the same as the real "Caixa Baixa" (Low Gang) who also composed death lists and acted upon them. The film had an impact and won loads of awards but nothing really changed. This bothered Meirelles who decided to keep up the fight and produce another film and a Television series, although the gangs continue and evolve. It was a striking film then and it still is now, easily one of the best and most important films of the 00s.