Of course, it is not a “fairy tale city” or a “dream city”, but once you fall into its trap, you still disappear forever – on this note, about 20 years ago, Fernando Meirelles and Katya Lund’s crime saga “The City” brought us said goodbye, Lord.” A wonderful film about the desperate life of the slums of Rio de Janeiro in the 60s and 80s, an eternal figure in the lists of the best films of the 21st century and perhaps the most famous Brazilian film in history – yes. The best candidate for a nostalgic sequel – hardly ever. However, years later, we reunited with photographer Raketa. (Alexandru Rodríguez) in exactly such cases.
All is still not well in Cidade de Deus, thank God, although officially it has become calmer and more positive: drug lord Bullfinch (Marcus Palmeira)He is considered a pretty good ruler, coming to power shortly after the events of the original City of God. But when Lantern is released from prison, rivers of blood return to the streets of Rio (Thiagu Martins)) – Bullfinch’s aforementioned son and former right-hand man is trying to regain his former right hand.
The sequel maintains a 20-year distance between the present day and the events depicted; This means that the show takes place in the mid-2000s, around the time Meirelles and Lund’s film was released. The catch is that the movie “City of God” is clearly not present in the series “City of God: The Struggle Continues”, which means that the sequel both lacks social impact and cuts off its own branch of reality. and their exit.
Perhaps to compensate for this, or perhaps in response to the demand of the Brazilian public at the moment, the series emphasizes at the beginning of each episode that this is a fictional story and takes a completely different tone from the movie. The old “City of God” was a perfectly obvious phrase in the spirit of “an owl hit a log, the log hit an owl.” Of the series of heroes striving for a different life, only Rocket was able to achieve this; The fate of the rest was incomparably sadder. At the same time, everyone who found themselves at the crossroads between personal and public, including Rocket, moved towards the former, so in the grand scheme of things Meirelles and Lund remained even more pessimistic: An individual has a very small chance. a city has none.
In this area, “The Struggle Continues” attempts to engage in a form of reflection: Some Brazilians accused the original film of its exploitative and “exporting” approach to depicting disadvantaged areas; much the same complaints as were leveled against the mature Rocket (who also rose to the top spot). The position of the leading photographer in the main newspaper of the city, photographing what is happening in the slums, is expressed by the young rapper’s daughter. The conclusions drawn here are frankly strange.
First of all, the series begins to insist on excessive social optimism, so it resembles someone’s election campaign. In some places it seems very ridiculous, in others it is cynical, because in some respects the life of the inhabitants of Cidade de Deus has become even worse since the film’s release: for example, the military police in Rio in the 2000s have become another major crime on par with drug trafficking alone in the last 20 years began to gain strength, which turned into a problem (on this topic, Jose Padilla made the duo “Elite Squad” with Wagner Moura in the title role – based on the text of Braulio Mantovani, who wrote the script for the film “City of God”.
Secondly, in the process of wandering, the series’ moral compass begins to malfunction, and so it looks into extremely dubious territory: Snegir, the drug lord who seized power 20 years ago, is more or less in good shape because he’s done too much. He brought useful things and order. It is clear to everyone where this path will lead.
At the same time, it (the path) raises no less questions than the destination. While the old “City of God” shocked me with its brutality towards the heroes and the audience, the new one saddens me with manipulative imagery and cheap techniques: a shot girl holding a Bible, the funeral of an important character. It is accompanied by a trap arrangement of Mozart’s “Lacrimosa”.
What is striking in the “Struggle” is that there is no answer to the question of why all this is needed in principle and even in the form of a mini-series. If Meirellis and Lund’s two-hour film spanned nearly two decades and achieved its goals with far less bloodshed, the series spends its entire six episodes unobtrusively trampling on the 2000s. For those who really want to reunite with the “City of God” characters, there is an alternative sequel: short film “Rocket”It was shot a few years ago as an advertisement for mobile phones and 5G communications. And we already know that we are getting further and further away from God every day.
Original title: Cidade de Deus: A Luta Não Para / City of God: The Struggle Intensifies
Publication date: 26 August 2024
Duration: 6 episodes of 46 minutes
Directors: Ali Muritiba
Casting: Alexandru Rodriguez, Tiago Martins, Roberta Rodriguez, Sabrina Rosa, Edson Oliveira, Marcos Palmeira
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