As DePauw University students, we are seldom exposed to successful international films, so I think that we should take the time out to watch something outside of the ordinary.
The Portuguese film “Cidade de Deus (City of God),” directed by Fernando Mereilles, has imprinted itself in my memory for shedding light on real-world issues, having a relatable cast and portraying both the beauty and poverty of Caribbean countries like Brazil. The film celebrates diversity by hiring an all-multicultural cast, which may be taken as commentary against the overwhelming amount of white-male protagonists in the film industry. Aside from their diversity, youth and naiveté in acting, the characters wrestled with common issues, such as trying to find love, being ugly and poor and the pursuit of power and respect. The authenticity of the characters made me forget that the film was ever a script before it was on screen.
The protagonist, Rocket, desires to become a photographer, allowing Mereilles to direct the film from the point-of-view of an amateur’s camera, using rapid camera movements and distorted angles to simulate the protagonists’ perspective.
The film editor, Daniel Rezende, presented the story in reverse chronological order, and it struck me as one of the more interesting plots of this structure. The cyclical formation of the plot parallels how the drug / gang industry continuously rises and falls in places of poverty, always circling back to the origin of the movie’s issues. At the end of the film, the children that were used as tools to steal and to inflict violence killed the drug-lord that had once reigned in the City of God, continuing the cycle of rising drug-lords.
The high-key lighting visuals of common sights in third-world countries, such as chickens, dirt roads and laundry on clotheslines had also affected me, making me feel particularly nostalgic. I have spent a great deal of time in the Caribbean where such visualizations connote “home,” making me feel like the target audience.
However, alongside such feelings of nostalgia, I experienced memorable and severe discomfort because of the prolonged shots of violence in the film. In one scene, the camera captures a close-up of a child crying after having been shot and hearing his friend being gunned to death. Such intense scenes are unforgettable for their gruesomeness, but also for the realism of the tragedy.
The film also comments on the necessity of capturing violence in a place like Cidade de Deus, where police choose to let criminals loose in exchange for money and the media remains uninvolved for political reasons. Self-reflexivity exists through the presence of the media and through the protagonists’ camera, as it captures the forgotten, poverty-stricken areas within large cities.
The authentic Portuguese dialectic is a beautiful highlight of the film. Despite its potential language barrier, City of God prepares its audience to relate to the characters and their common and unique struggles.