Movie Moment: Cidade de Deus
An energetic, gritty film suffused with heat — and violence. This Brazilian film (English title: City of God) is based upon a true story about the occupants of Rio’s most notorious slum.
It’s a film that the New York Times playfully called “Gangs of Rio” in a nod to Scorsese’s movie. There are certainly similarities, but this picture is much more daring in terms of structure, and it feels more raw due to the youth of its protagonists — a factor that makes it sometimes difficult to watch. More than once a woman in the row behind me gasped sharply at the brutality that unfolded on the screen.
Such is the irony of the slum’s name: in that wretched place, a god is nowhere to be found.