Favelas

Last lazy weekend, while flipping thru our TV channels we came a crossed an interesting movie. At first glance, we thought it was another boring family drama. But as mins passed by we soon realised, this movie, City Of God, was about the life of those Brazilians who lives and grew up in the slum in Rio De Janeiro. Through the eye of one kid whom later grew up to become a reporter, the story line is about him, his family and friends and of course, their struggle in the crime infested urban area. This movie shows the reality side of poverty mixes with drugs and crimes. Kids as young as 10 to 18 were involved in gang crime and were killing each other with guns for money and drug. The movie was quite violence at some part but funny on the other half. Because of this masterpiece uniqueness, we went to HMV to get another DVD series which were released in Brazil, City of Men. This series, a compilation of few episodes are more light hearted and non violence but the producers still maintained the authenticity of the first series the City Of God such as crimes, drug and gang warfare but the violence scenes are reduced and more comical sketches are added. It is unique to see the transformation and interpretation about their daily life in the slums and live along side with gangs and drugs. One thing, we learnt about this movie, the residents there treat the gang leader like their MP. They can complaints any issue up to their domestic problems and the gang leader will come for their rescue of course ..with a minimal fees. Err.. they do charity work as well, such as post men and policing. Surprisingly, they tried to keep their area crime rate low err..thou they are the one who commit most of the crimes!
Anyway, we are quite fascinated by the way this producer tried to project his idea on the differences between the poor and the upper class. He uses a lot of slang terms used in the slums and the posh area. Both, although had drawn a line in between them, geographically and socially, they do have a very funny assumption and various naming convention for each other. On one side, the posh kids are playing ps2 and the dinner is served in front of them, while the others is shooting each other in the alley and begged for food in the streets. So, we gave both of these movies....




Other info :
http://www.sln.org.uk/geography/brazil/MoreRio.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/105530_god24q.shtml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2247608.stm
http://encarta.msn.com/media_461539825/Slum_in_Rio_de_Janeiro.html