Limes with Orange

I went by the CSIF yesterday to drop off the film print of "Coda in G Minor" for the $100 Film Festival (Did I mention that it got accepted?! It's screening on Friday, March 14 at 7pm at the Plaza!) and I ended up picking up passes to see "Cidade dos Homens (City of Men)."

The IMDb plot outline: "Best buddies Acerola and Laranjinha, about to turn 18, discover things about their missing fathers' pasts which will shatter their solid friendship, in the middle of a war between rival drug gangs from Rio's favelas."

Quite frankly, that's not a description that would lure me into the theatres. I'm usually not interested in films that focus on gang violence. But I took the passes because of the involvement of producer Fernando Meirelles (dir. "The Constant Gardener") and the beauty of the trailers. Now, having seen the movie, I have to say that the gang war in the movie is mostly just a backdrop for the human story between the two boys. And it's a beautiful story, well acted and stunningly filmed. While the events going on around the boys may be heavy, the film somehow portrays a childlike innocence that it maintains, regardless of external influences.

And so the question becomes: can these innocent boys grow up to be good men in a city where the greatest challenge is simply survival? The answer... all that I'll say is that the answer is definitely worth the journey.

Labels: film