City of God: The Favela Epic Shot Like a Bullet

Sat, 26 Jul 2025 11:00:00 +0000

City of God opens with a knife on a whetstone and a chicken making a break for freedom, and within ninety seconds it has taught you its entire grammar. The camera whips, the cuts land like punches, a boy stands frozen between an armed gang and the police, and the film freezes with him — then spins backwards through years to explain how he got there. Fernando Meirelles’ 2002 film about the drug wars in a Rio de Janeiro housing project is the most propulsive crime picture of its century, and more than twenty years on it has lost none of its capacity to leave you slightly winded. It moves like it is being chased, because everyone in it is.

Favela - vo.rs

City of God: The Favela Epic Shot Like a Bullet