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Christ the Redeemer watches over the City of God, a place where Judgement Day is a day too late. Within his shadow, the city streets are venated with crime and chaos. The city is real. Referring to Cidade de Deus, a suburb in Rio de Janeiro, was developed as a way of removing slums and relocating inhabitants to “suburbs”. City of God did for Brazil what Slumdog Millionaire did for India. Both crisscross along the lives of underprivileged children - trying to make quick money, falling head first into the hard world with high expectations set forth by the formal world. The film is adapted from Paulo Lin's novel of the same name, loosely based on real events. Lin hails from a childhood in an impoverished Brazil caught in the circle of gang violence and racism.
We first meet the narrator, Rocket, in the crossfire between the police, a chicken, and the very man he wants to avoid, Lil Ze, the maker of mayhem himself. Rocket is a good boy. All he wants from life is to take photos, get paid, get laid, have fun, and smoke pot along the way.
He is from the City of God and can’t seem to detach himself from its notorious reputation, not that he wants to. He tries to make money the easy way and the hard way. Working in a grocery store or attempting to loot and assault like his classmates – both leaving him empty-handed. Rocket is a lot like the chicken– always running from death, barely scraping by.
Rocket is just as good of a storyteller as he is a photographer. He tells us the story of the City of God, divided up into decades. He brings us to the “Tender Trio”. “Tender” is quite an accurate word to describe the intensity of crimes taking place in the suburb at that time. The trio consists of the young adults, Shaggy, Clipper, and Rocket’s older brother Goose, who are seen as the cool older boys. They are idolized by the “Runts” referring to the younger kids, a term that doesn’t materialize till later in the movie when the town changes. Their story acts as a preface for what’s to come. They playfully steal from the relatively rich and give to their community. However, when they decide to let Lil Dice, who later takes up the name Lil Ze, tag along for a robbery at a brothel, things go south.
The film takes off rather quickly from here. Lil Dice represents the anomaly in what was a relatively peaceful town. Before him, you waved around a loaded and cocked gun, but you never pulled the trigger. That was left to the trigger-friendly police who always saw the townsfolk as guilty until you’re dead. The transformation of Lil Dice to Lil Ze - from calculated to one cracked schmuck – stems from his obsession with power and sensitivity to literally everything.
Let’s understand the economics of the City of God. We have two rival cartels, one headed by Lil Z and the other by Carrot. Entry into either is easy, as the gangs are always looking for foot soldiers. This can range from older helpless small-business owners to young children barely in school. Entry is easy. But to exit is a whole lot harder. Not a single person who has tried to leave the City of God succeeded. We have the Tender Trio, the best friend Benny, and even Rocket barely make it till he decides to stay back and embrace his town. There is a continuous circle of supply beyond the numbers that keep the system running. You have access to guns supplied under the table by the police. The guns embolden looting and murder which gives you money. Money brings in drugs which when dealt to the crime-ridden city, brings in more money for guns.
Such a chaotic story only makes sense to be filmed handheld. The means match the mood and can even be connected to Rocket and the way he narrates and documents the conflict around him. The housing society, where most of our characters are raised, is shaded with a uniform, monochromatic sandy brown. But with the transition from flashback to the present day, we see the colors get darker, colder, and wetter. The characters move beyond their uniformly lined houses, to the inner streets and abandoned sheds of the city.
We reach the climax with the final scene which is in fact the first scene. It is one of the few moments where the camera switches from shaky hand-held to a 360° track around Rocket. In that final standoff, we realize that we understood the characters' stories all along. Rocket is caught in the middle of unwanted business. He finds Lil Z at every corner of the city when he tries so hard to avoid the guy. The corrupt cops think they have the gangsters cornered, when they realize they never did, as they are laughably outnumbered. And Lil Z chases the chicken, not for the lack of chicken at the barbecue but because the chicken wouldn’t dare run away, would it?
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