City of God (film)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title City of God
Original title Cidade de Deus
City of God (film) Logo.png
Country of production Brazil , France , USA
original language Portuguese
Publishing year 2002
length 128 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
JMK 14
Rod
Director Fernando Meirelles
Katia Lund
script Bráulio Mantovani
Paulo Lins
production Andrea Barata Ribeiro
Mauricio Andrade Ramos
music Ed Cortes
Antonio Pinto
camera César Charlone
cut Daniel Rezende
occupation
chronology

Successor  →
City of Men

City of God ( Portuguese Cidade de Deus ) is a Brazilian film about life in the poor neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro . The script is based on the novel of the same name by Paulo Lins , who grew up in the “City of God”. However, the material for the film has been shortened a bit, as the novel tells more than 40 stories, and Buscapé has been added as a leading person. The plot is based on real events.

prehistory

In order to achieve greater authenticity, Fernando Meirelles cast the cast of the film almost exclusively with young people from the slums of Rio. Several hundred young people were invited to a six-month theater workshop and prepared for their later roles. In acting lessons, special emphasis was placed on free improvisation techniques, which were also used in most of the scenes in the later film in order to make the film more authentic.

action

The film tells the events in a real poor neighborhood in Rio from the 1960s to the 1980s from the perspective of Buscapé. The Cidade de Deus , located in the suburb of Jacarepaguá in the west of the metropolis, is an inhospitable satellite town designed on the drawing board and built in the dust, primarily for rural refugees from northeastern Brazil, which at the time was ravaged by a persistent drought . As good as the architects' intentions might have been, the Cidade de Deus became a soulless repository for the lower classes, a hotbed of inhumanity.

Buscapé was confronted with violence very early on. His brother Marreco is in a gang whose members consider themselves to be big gangsters.

This gang tries to get money through various small robberies. In an attack on an hour hotel , the violence escalates when eight-year-old Löckchen shoots everyone in the hotel. On this day, Löckchen discovered his joy in killing. The gang disbanded when they were targeted by the police for the murders of hotel guests, and several gang members were killed as a result. Löckchen also goes underground for a while. On his 18th birthday, Löckchen and his friend Bené, “Rio de Janeiro's coolest gangster”, decided to become a drug dealer . For this they kill all the other dealers in the City of God with the exception of Carrot, who is a friend of Bené. After a fateful encounter with a Candomblé priest who gives him a talisman, Löckchen becomes “Locke the boss”, who secures power in the entire district. When Bené gets out of the drug business and wants to disappear from the city of God with his girlfriend Angélica, the situation escalates at his farewell party. Locke starts an argument with his friend and a scuffle ensues. Meanwhile, Neguinho, Karotte's manager, has sneaked into the party and wants to kill Locke. In the fray, however, Bené is accidentally shot instead of Locke.

A gang war ensues ("Life in the city of God was purgatory, now it has become hell."). The only remaining drug dealer in the neighborhood, Carrot, no longer has any immunity from Locke after Bené's death. Carrot teams up with Mané, whose girlfriend was raped by Locke, to protect himself from Locke and take revenge on him.

Buscapé, who was given a 35mm camera, began to be interested in photography. To get closer to his secret professional goal of becoming a press photographer, he found a job with a newspaper. In the morning, on courier trips, he distributes the newspaper circulation in packages, including in the City of God. After the police arrested Mané, who was injured in a shooting, his name and picture appear in all the newspapers. Locke is angry that at the same time his name is hushed up and his picture does not appear anywhere, since he is the boss in the neighborhood. He instructs his people to take a group photo of him and his gang with arms raised in triumph, but nobody can handle the camera. One of Locke's men then fetches Buscapé, who manages to take the desired photo. He has the film developed in the editorial department's photo lab. The next morning, he was amazed when he discovered that his photo appeared on the front page of the newspaper. He fears that he has conjured up the wrath of Locke and in fear for his life he immediately returns to the editorial office and makes a scene there that his picture has been published without being asked. Buscapé then has the chance of a lifetime: to be a photographer for the newspaper, initially with the task of delivering more photos of Locke. He, in turn, is downright thrilled that he has now made it onto the front page of the newspaper and is happy to have Buscapé take more photos.

The gang war reaches its final when there is a shootout between the gangs and the police. Locke and Carrot can be arrested, but Locke is released again by the police on the way, since the police officer who arrests Locke is actually also the arms dealer whose subordinates Locke stole his goods without paying, which he now has to catch up . Buscapé can take photos of the release and sees how the gang of children, the offspring, so to speak, discover Locke, shoot him and thus become the new rulers of the district. But Buscapé did not publish the photos of the handover of money to the police officers and of the "execution" of Locke in the newspaper because he was afraid for his life. He is content with submitting photos of the deceased, which will help him do an internship at the newspaper.

Awards and impact

The film was very successful and received very good reviews and many awards internationally. In 2004 he was nominated for four Oscars in the categories of Best Director , Best Adapted Screenplay , Best Cinematography and Best Editing , but got nothing. In its home country, the film has sparked a debate about the conditions in the favelas , as the film impressively shows the other side of Brazil's tourist magnet Rio de Janeiro . Also worth mentioning is the soundtrack by Antonio Pinto , a mix of samba and funk . The film also ranks 21st in the Internet Movie Database among the best films of all time from a user perspective (as of March 2019).

In 2016, City of God ranked 38th in a BBC poll of the 100 most important films of the 21st century .

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating “particularly valuable”.

backgrounds

  • In the German dubbing, the narrator, Buscapé, was voiced by Xavier Naidoo .
  • All actors - with the exception of Matheus Nachtergaele (carrot) and Seu Jorge (Mané) - were laypeople who were recruited from the slums around Rio. Alexandre Rodrigues (Buscapé) actually lives in the "City of God".
  • The interview in the credits of the film is authentic and shows the real Mané.
  • The film was not shot in the real City of God , but in the "new building district" Nova Sepetiba and other favelas.

Film music

  1. Meu nome é Ze - Antonio Pinto, Ed Cortes
  2. Vida de otario - Antonio Pinto, Ed Cortes
  3. Funk da virada - Antonio Pinto, Ed Cortes
  4. Estoria da boca - Antonio Pinto, Ed Cortes
  5. Na Rua, Na Chuva, Na Fazenda - Hyldon
  6. A Transa - Antonio Pinto, Ed Cortes
  7. Metamorfosis outpatient - Raul Seixas
  8. Não Vem Que Não Tem (Nem Vem Que Não Tem) (1997 Digital Remaster) - Wilson Simonal
  9. Preciso mehabenrar - Cartola
  10. Alvorada - Cartola
  11. Convite para Vida - Antonio Pinto, Ed Cortes
  12. O caminho do bem - Tim Maia
  13. Morte ze pequeno - Antonio Pinto, Ed Cortes
  14. Batucada remix - Antonio Pinto, Ed Cortes (Remix by DJ Camilo Rocha & DJ YAH)

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Age rating for City of God . Youth Media Commission .
  2. ↑ Press Release. Retrieved November 3, 2011 .
  3. ↑ IMDb Charts: IMDb Top 250. Internet Movie Database, accessed on March 25, 2019 .
  4. ^ "City of God" review. filmspiegel.de, accessed on March 24, 2013 .