Cidade De Deus [City of God] (2002)

(On DVD, July 2005) Wow! Dynamic crime drama, straight from one of Brazil’s most dangerous neighbourhood: If you thought inner-city black crime movies had it bad, then nothing will prepare you for the casual fashion crime is portrayed in this film. Kids with guns, shooting others and laughing to tell about it. Any thought of “boring foreign cinema” will quickly evaporate as the director changes styles, plays structural tricks and never loses our attention. Many characters are gracefully handled with minimal confusion: the script is a minor tour de force. This is a fabulous film: maybe not one you’ll care to see twice, but definitely one that deserves to be see once. The DVD contains a fabulous one-hour documentary that shows that the reality is even worse than the fiction.