AND LASTLY, BRAZIL TODAY : "CIDADE DOS HOMENES"

Honestly, I don’t know as much as I should about Brazilian movies. When I picked this up I only knew that I had heard that it was a good movie. Yeah I know, not much to go on. The thing is, I was reading a book on Brazilian films at the time (which reminds me I really should finish it someday) and I thought this would give me perspective one way or another. Since I’m actually actively learning about films at the moment, I watch some films purely out of a sense of duty. This is how this one started, but it ended up as one of the films I have enjoyed most in the last few days…
Ace and Wallace are two 18 year-olds who live on one of the many hills in the favelas around Rio. They have been best-friends since they were very small; Ace’s father was killed when he was small, Wallace doesn’t know who is father is so they have just looked out for each other, getting into and out of scrapes pretty much their whole lives. Now Ace is married and has a young son, Clayton – but this doesn’t stop the two mates hanging out. Not least because now he is almost 18 Wallace has to get an ID card. And he doesn’t want to put “father unknown” on it. As his grandmother, and all the rest of their friends and relations for that matter, seems to refuse point blank to tell him anything about his father, he and Ace set out on a quest to find him. They will not, however, like the answer when they find it. As the shroud of mystery surrounding Wallace’s father slowly dissipates, the boy’s friendship will be tested to the limit, and thanks to the gang war raging round the hill they live on, their very lives will come to be at stake…
What I loved about this film is the raw realism it contains. I don’t mean that it is especially hard-hitting or dramatic, it is just, you know, real. Even though, to be fair, I know nothing about the favelas in Brazil personally, the characters are believable and down to earth. From the gangsters down to the innocent passers-by, no one is black or white, just different shades of grey like real people. It is true, some really dramatic events will happen down the line in the story, but they don’t stick out. It is a film that calls a spade a spade, but it doesn’t embellish. That is why, I think, even though there are some truly heart-rending scenes it doesn’t seem contrived in anyway. It’s a credit to the actors of course, but also the lack of things like “emotional” close-ups and a “heart-rending” musical score… This film feels like a window into the real favelas in Brazil. You come away from it feeling as if you have seen, and learnt something important and real. It is refreshing to see a film intent simply on telling a story and showing things the way they are as opposed to harping on the poverty of the people or the gang-fights (and there are some horrendous scenes of gang fighting don’t get me wrong, they’re just not the main point of the film). It holds its head high and says, “Well, this is the way we are, and here’s our story, we don’t want your pity, we want you to listen.” You feel emotionally involved, but I guess I mean you don’t feel pushed to do so… And that, I think we can all agree, is a very refreshing feeling indeed.