City of God (2002)

Cautiously Recommended

Brazil/France
Feature Film
Original Title: Cidade de Deus
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Writers: Bráulio Mantovani, Paulo Lins
Cinematographer: César Charlone
Composers: Ed Cortês, Antonio Pinto
Cast: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Phellipe Haagensen, Douglas Silva, Jonathan Haagensen, Matheus Nachtergaele, Seu Jorge, Jefechander Suplino, Alice Braga

Meirelles’s ‘70s-set, fact-based portrait of a vicious gang war in the hope-starved favelas of Rio de Janeiro, episodically recreating the lives of the fresh-faced inhabitants of the titular slum, contains several scenes of breathtaking power, but unfortunately there is also much in the way of flashy, soulless ephemera. Iain.Stott