At first glance, one would expect a movie titled "City of God" to show how poverty and marginalization would make criminals of frustrated people. Instead we see how, in an atmosphere of unsupervised chaos, a single charismatic psychopath can hold sway over an entire population with the force of his sick personality. Set on the mean streets of a Rio de Janeiro slum (in the 'Cidade de Deus' housing project), "City of God" is a story about two boys who grow up in differing paths. One, Buscapé (Rodrigues), becomes a photographer; the other becomes a drug dealer. The film follows their paths through a series of short stories, as we learn about the violent, often short lives of those wrapped up in the dangerous world of drugs and crime on Brazil's cruelest area.
             Based on a true story, this movie spans two decades, from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. It depicts an account of the brutal teenage gangs that battle for control of the drug trade in the Rio de Janeiro slums. It is narrated through the eyes of Buscapé, in his arid housing project 15 miles outside of Rio De Janeiro, beginning with him as a child looking up to the local hoods as they rob delivery trucks, and ending with him photographing them for the local newspaper as they kill each other. Although Buscapé is a poor black kid, who is too frail and scared to become an outlaw, he is however smart to be content with an underpaid job. He discovers that he can see the reality of his violent world with a different eye: the eye of an artist. Eventually he becomes a professional photographer. That is his redemption. And while there were good times, Buscapé 's narration indicates that he does not miss them much. "This is where the politicians dump their garbage", he says. "Criminals? Homeless families? Pack 'em up and send them to City of God!"
             Although this movie was difficult to watch, its parallelism to reality makes it hard to ignore. One of t...