Cidade de Deus (English translation: City of God), released in 2002, won 74 awards from 2002-2004, one of them being the BAFTA for Best Editing (Daniel Rezende). The movie was nominated for 4 Oscars for Best Director, Best Writing-Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing. Adapted from the 1997 novel Cidade de Deus by Paulo Lins, the plot was also loosely based on true events. Bráulio Mantovani decided to help the actors get a firmer understanding of their roles in the film and the dynamics they should be playing. The film was directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund; however, Lund was not credited at the Academy Awards for the Best Director category. Cidade de Deus remains Meirelles and Lund’s most notable work on screen, even though Meirelles directed more pieces that would get him nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director in 2005. Although the film included a cast of new actors and unknown crew, the movie stands on the 22nd spot on IMDb’s Top 250 Films.
The lead role of Buscapé / Rocket and Zé Pequeno / Li'l Zé was played by Alexandre Rodrigues and Leandro Firmino da Hora respectively. The film featured the roles of Phellipe Haagensen, Douglas Silva, Alice Braga, and Seu Jorge as supporting cast members. Most of the actors were, in fact, residents of favelas such as Vidigal and the Cidade de Deus itself. Although the crime film was shot on location in Rio De Janeiro by native Brazilian filmmakers, the directors admitted that the actual favelas of Cidade de Deus were far too dangerous to film in. The movie was filmed in the neighboring favela, Cidade Alta. The movie follows two perpendicular storylines of two kids whose paths diverge as one struggles to become a photographer and the other a kingpin. How is the central theme of pessimism reinforced in the grueling atmosphere that the film creates?
Within the first ten minutes of the film, criminals are seen as heroes. Representing the Robin Hood of the favela, the Tender Trio robs local shopkeepers and vendors and shares the profits of their robberies with the citizens of Cidade de Deus to survive. In return, they receive police protection from the area, and they represent someone the children aspire to be. With this misplaced respect and the growing need to become idols themselves, the kids in the favela grow up to become the criminals they looked up to in their childhood. In the process, they lose their innocence. They lose their families, become drug addicts, and shoot innocent people in the streets. They lose all hope of having a normal way of life as they are born into a future of crime, drugs, and death. This is proven when Bené (Zé Pequeno’s right-hand man and best friend) decides to start a new life with his girlfriend, Angelica. But, his association with Zé Pequeno takes his life before it can begin.
It also works the other way around. Mané Galinha / Knockout Ned is seen as one of the good guys in the favela. He was a former soldier who now works on a bus and stays clear of the criminal lifestyle even though he still lives in the favela. However, due to Zé Pequeno’s insecurity and jealousy, Galinha is driven over the edge. In retaliation, he teams up with the small-time drug dealer Cenoura and instigates a gang war to avenge his family’s deaths. The only way Galinha agreed to partake in the gang war was the agreement that no innocents would be shot. Cenoura agreed. The deal held up for a while, but then came the exception to the rule. Once the exception became the norm, he became another corrupted member of Cidade de Deus.
The only beacon of hope in Cidade de Deus is the main character and narrator, Buscapé. Even though he was brought up in the same neighborhood as Zé Pequeno and was very close friends with Bené, he did not turn to a life of crime, even though he tried. Both Buscapé and his friend tried to hold up the bus that Mané Galinha was working on, but Buscapé couldn’t bring himself to do it because they had such a good conversation. Then again, he tried to rob the corner store, but the girl at the counter was too pretty. As a result, his decision to choose a conventional lifestyle saves him.
The consistent theme of pessimism is reinforced by the life of crime that is immediately introduced to the film. Even though Buscapé could escape the favela and create a name for himself as a famous photographer, he wouldn’t have been able to have that lifestyle without his breakthrough photo of Zé Pequeno’s gang. The tagline for Cidade de Deus is ‘Fight and you’ll never survive. Run and you’ll never escape.’ Even though the film emphasizes that a life of crime is inevitable in Cidade de Deus, the fact that its narrator survives without blood on his hand may be its ultimate triumph.
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