The Best Films of the Zeroes: 19

CITY OF GOD. (2004)
Directed by Fernando Meirelles

When CITY OF GOD was released, it was greeted with a unanimous roar of approval. Comparisons abounded to the likes of GOODFELLAS, people suggested it was the beginning of a glorious new era for Latin cinema, and just about everyone was astounded at the power, vivacity and scope of Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund‘s film. Time hasn’t dulled the effect by much, this remains an incredible film.

The directors fashioned something amazing, by presenting it with a stamp of authenticity. The film shot in the favelas that it depicts, it used non-professional actors from the slums in key roles and it is overpowered by the brashness and confidence of both youth and inexperience. This also applies to the actors, each of whom is excellent.

From the very start, CITY OF GOD teems with tension, we’re thrown headlong into a world that is frightening, violent; loud and colourful. Throughout the film, we track a pair of contemporaries – Rocket and Lil’Ze, whose lives veer down different tracks. While Lil’Ze succumbs to the lure of violence, and then the power that comes with it, Rocket lives a different life. Instead of a gun, his weapon is a camera, constantly documenting favela life.

There was a boom in Latin cinema, which CITY OF GOD, the best South American film of the decade, drove forward. The majority of the successes, such as BUS 174, LOWER CITY, Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN, AMORES PERROS and NINE QUEENS are stylish, kinetic films, yet CITY OF GOD trumps them all, the perfect example of this kind of ‘ghetto’ filmmaking.

There are a number of excellent sequences, from a beach scene in which Rocket and his girlfriend unwind away from the favela, to an outstanding party scene, which throbs with authenticity. The standout, though, is a scene in which some of the young hoods are instructed to deal with an even younger gang. The moment where a six year old boy is forced to choose whether he wants to be shot in the hand or foot is one of the most corrosively unpleasant of the decade.

The comparisons to GOODFELLAS were slightly off the mark, not that CITY OF GOD suffers much in comparison to Scorcese’s classic, just that it was the wrong film. The concentration of youthful exuberance in the film, and the intrinsic vulnerability that we attach to such youths instinctively as an audience is more reminiscent of MEAN STREETS. Really, though, CITY OF GOD doesn’t live in any other film’s shadow, it’s a brilliant, compelling, thrilling piece of work in its own right.