The film "City of God" was released in the scenes of Portugal in 2002 and hit the international film market in 2013. The director of the film is Fernando Meirelles. The film portrays the life of crime in the slums of Brazil, which is filled with drug dealing and crime. The director and his co-director Katia Lund had the children as the main actors in the film and portrayed the children as the culprits and dupes of crime. The film features the lives of two boys, Rocket and Lil Ze, living and growing up in Rio De Janeiro, where every day is filled with crime and violence. The boys grew up in one of the favelas of Rio.
The exposure to crime and violence of the boys at a tender age affected their lives, especially Lil Ze. Children got connected to the Favela because they were among the observers of the violence and crime in their neighborhood (Siwi, 2003) . The two boys follow different paths, with Lil Ze becoming a drug dealer while Rocket became a photographer. The movie demonstrated the different lives that people take after being exposed to the same social constraints while growing up. Role models play a vital role in the lives of human beings. This is explained by the fact that Rocket chose a better path despite the exposure to crime because his brother guided him. On the other hand, Lil Ze did not have someone to look up to or guide him through life's struggles and indulged in crime. Lil Ze died at an early age because of his dangerous life, while Rocket had a longer life and became famous because of his photography. Poverty, drug abuse and crime, and violence are among the social concepts presented in the film "City of God."
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Poverty
The film portrays the level of poverty that the residents of the Favelas lived in during the '60s, '70s, and '80s. The City of God favela was started as a community for the poor people in the 1960's. The film portrays life in the favelas and most of the neighborhood's social status. The people in the movie were wearing clothes that were old and ragged, and some of the children could be seen in the streets walking without shoes. The poverty and the social inequality in the Favela led to the increased rate of crime in the favelas ( Freire-Medeiros, 2011) . Due to poverty, most of the kids, including the Lil Ze, choose the terrible path of crime and violence in life because of their frustrations due to poverty as growing up. Deprivation leads to a rise in social and family problems, which can explain why Lil Ze did not have anyone to look up to in their family, which contributed to the terrible life that he chose to follow. The rate of crime in areas near the slums is high due to the high poverty levels in the slums, and thus teenagers have nothing else to do other than becoming part of gangs.
Drug Abuse
Drug abuse and dealing are some of the significant contributors to crime and violence in society. In the quest for power, Lil Ze became one of the drug lords, which increased his involvement in crime which caused his early death. Although the money involved in selling drugs is good, one's life is at risk always immediately they get involved with drugs. Gangs are associated with drug abuse. The rate of drug abuse and dealing in the Favela in the film is explainable because the teenagers have nothing to do due to the social and economic constraints in the neighborhood, thus ending up joining the gangs ( Freire-Medeiros, 2011 ). Communities need to ensure that the economic challenges cater to the teenagers in that community a better future away from drugs.
Crime and Violence
The brutality and the desperation depicted in the film "City of God" is the same as experienced in the Brazil Favelas between 1960 and 1980 ( Freire-Medeiros, 2011 . The neighborhood in the Favela was crowded, and violence and crime were the order of the day in the streets. In one scene in the film, a boy is seen riding a bike, and there are burnt cars in the background. This could have been a result of the war between the drug lords. Lil Ze had grown to become a ruthless drug lord who was involved in murders, rape, and robbery as a way to acquire power. It is easy for teenagers from poor neighborhoods to join gangs because it is an easy way of getting money (Siwi, 2003). However, the only means of earning money through the gangs are violent, explaining the enormous violent acts in the film. The gangs use violence to control what the people in the neighborhood can do and places where they can go. The number of deaths in a community filled with crime and violence is high because it is normal for gang members to take the life of anyone who crosses them.
References
Freire-Medeiros, B. (2011). ‘I went to the City of God’: Gringos, guns and the touristic favela. Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies , 20 (1), 21-34.
Siwi, M. (2003). City of God, City of Man. SAIS Review , 23 (2), 233-238.
