City of Men

Acerola and Laranjinha grew up together in a favela on a hill above Rio and are both turning eighteen. One became a father while still a child himself, the other is looking for a father he never met. What he finds ties back into the history of the neighbourhood and pushes between the two friends. Paulo Morelli's film continues the television series that grew out of City of God and keeps its cast, but the register is different: guns and gangs sit in the background while fatherlessness holds the front. Its best material is geographical, the stairs up the hill, the water shortages, the distance to the city below. There is violence, and the film refuses to make it a spectacle. Who it is for: viewers who follow Brazilian cinema and want the favela shown from inside. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the velocity of City of God, because this is far calmer.