(The actual film is a lot less 90’s action movie than the trailer implies.)

MEMORABLE MOMENT: There are so many to choose from, but the first that comes to mind is the massacre at the Miami Motel. When we realize who perpetrated the killings (and the glee he took in the slaughter) we realize just how unhinged this character is.

•  The movie is based on a novel inspired by the author’s childhood.

• Because the filmmakers didn’t believe actors from middle class neighborhoods would look authentic, much of the film’s cast were local kids from poor neighborhoods (many grew up in Cidade De Deus).

• Help groups were set up to assist the young actors so they wouldn’t have to continue living in poverty. The documentary City of God: 10 Years Later follows what has changed in their lives.

• City of God inspired the Brazilian TV series City of Men which was itself turned into a film by the same name. 

-The film was ranked No. 7 in Empire Magazine’s “The 100 Best Films of World Cinema” and No. 6 in The Guardian’s “The 25 Best Action and War Films of All Time.”

 

One would think that a movie in which the setting is just as significant as the characters would begin with a helicopter shot of Rio de Janeiro’s sprawling metropolis. However, the film opens from the point of view of a chicken about to become someone’s meal.

In actuality, the film’s first several images are of a knife being sharpened. These start as closeups but pull back enough so the audience sees the legs and feathers of dead chickens in the background. The flurry of images are accompanied by shots of a local band playing and a scared chicken staring onward, as if contemplating its fate.

What follows is a disorienting storm of images: carrots sliced, a dead chicken’s severed head, sandaled feet dancing and more images of the band playing and the knife continuing to be sharpened. This is a place of celebration and death.

The chicken watches as her sisters are plucked and gutted. The band plays. Drinks are mixed. Kabobs sizzle on the grill. The chicken struggles with the string around her leg until she eventually escapes.

For the moment the chicken seems safe. Then a man notices her. Later in the film we learn that he is Li’l Zé, the antagonist (Leandro Firmino). Li’l Zé shouts the film’s first line, which according to the subtitles is: “Fuck, the chicken’s getting away! Go after that chicken, man!”

At his orders, a stampede of boys with guns chase after the animal as she runs through the back alleys. Only when the chase begins does the audience receive a clear view of the surrounding decrepit building and rubble-filled streets.

(For you animal lovers out there, the chicken does eventually escape.  In fact – spoiler alert! – she outlives many of the film’s characters.)

I didn’t describe the film’s opening seconds to turn you into a vegetarian (although if you are, good for you!) or to condemn the kids chasing after our feathered heroine (they have most likely spent much of their lives hungry). I described this scene because it was the perfect way to reveal the film’s setting. I’ve never been to Rio de Janeiro and can’t speak for the actual Cidade de Deus district, but the neighborhood portrayed in this film is a place where the characters (like the chicken) are trapped. Being caught up in the violence and poverty and possibly dying at a young age is a very true part of reality. At the same time, the audience also sees the characters playing sports, hanging out with friends, flirting and dancing at night clubs. Poverty and violence is not romanticized but as these opening shots suggest, their lives are filled with celebration and death.

It is no accident that this scenario opens a film that contains the deaths of dozens of children. Yes, they are children with guns in their hands, but they are caught up in the circumstance of poverty and desperation, the same way the chicken is caught up in the circumstance of becoming someone’s meal.

It is also no accident that the film’s antagonist, a local drug lord, is the one who sends the mob of armed boys after the scared animal.

I don’t mean this to be a navel-gazing post on symbolism (“It’s like the bird represents the chickens in all of us, man!”). I’m simply saying that the filmmakers effectively used the tools of editing to weave together a series of images and sounds that tells us exactly what this movie is going to be about.