City Of God

How far guys? Hope all's fine? Revealing to you guys parts of my wishlist here by talking about my love for Brazil, the culture, the people, the gangsters, the drugs, the sea and the fiesta. Many of my friends and close ones know that I have a long term dream of visiting Rio De Janeiro and Sao Paulo. But few know why. Not saying that the sole reason for loving this country is the movie City of God, but it sure was one of those things that made me want to find out more about it.

Of course when people think of Brazil they think of samba, sex and probably some of the most gorgeous women out there. Don't know if it's so, but for a long time I was attracted to this country specifically for these reasons. Then I found out that Brazil is one of the most diversified countries on earth and being discriminated most of my life due to the fact that I am considered a "half cast" or even worst a "mistake of nature", I thought of Brazil as of "mulatto heaven". Indeed, you'll hardly ever see that big of a variety when it comes to blending whites and blacks. Isn't that great? However, the point in this post is City Of God, right? A movie that serves not only as an example of the fact that Brazilians to have great movie makers, but also have a superb and absolutely astonishing contemporary culture in spite of being tangled with crime, drugs and violence.

In a nutshell (copyright Tanya), City Of God is a movie about the reality of Brazilian favelas, crime, drugs and how people living there deal with all that. How the desire to escape poverty takes people to dark places even though they don't intend to. Just like the case with Zé Pequeno one of the main actors in the movie, who went all the way from being a small time crook to being one of the most notorious gangsters in Rio. Or the story of Buscapé, the main character in the movie, who goes from newspaper delivery boy to top reporter in a Brazilian newspaper. That may all sound beautiful and unreal, but the thing is that this movie is based on a real story and that brings more appeal to it.

I've rarely seen any movie that conveys the atmosphere of a setting as much as this one. A movie where the acting is as genuine as it can get. A movie where you worry for each an every character and empathise with each of them, too. So, if you guys are into finding something new, City Of God is definitely one of those "must see" movies. Definitely goes to the top 20 movies I've ever watched. Moreover is not that often you get to see some Brazilian production which is not some sort of soap opera:-)