Armoured black vans and jeeps enter the Cidade de Deus (City of God) favela through the inclined and precarious streets. Men wearing all-black balaclavas and gear are in the vehicles and storm in military formation, holding their assault rifles. They are Rio de Janeiro’s finest and compose a unit to combat organised crime with heavy weaponry.
Weeks before, the scene seemed more amicable at the City of God favela, as the same place was having an amateur football match between the local team and visitors. Around the pitch, people were having a barbecue, drinking beer, and listening to live samba music while they cheered on their players. Still, a misunderstanding between athletes was stopped when drug lord Bullfinch (Marcos Palmeira) shot some rounds of bullets to stop the fracas and assert his leadership.
At the quiet Gardênia Azul (Blue Gardenia) favela, inhabitants meet with reporters at a church to confide how the militia, a paramilitary group with ties to law enforcement and government agents in high places, keeps a tight grip over their daily lives while promising to protect them. However, they are shaking off their money and imposing conservative values through powder. The militia leader Bull (Otavio Linhares) affirms that the “mess” that is happening in City of God due to a drug dealer’s turf war wouldn’t happen at his territory.
These three scenarios help to understand how complex the situation in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas has unfolded, as portrayed in the HBO Original series ‘City of God: The Fight Rages On’ (2024), which acts as a sequel to the quintessential world cinema picture ‘City of God’ (2002). The story happens two decades after the demise of the infamous drug dealer Lil’ Ze (Leandro Firmino).
It is a solid new chapter of the story from the movie helmed by Kátia Lund and Fernando Meirelles, based on the homonymous novel by Paulo Lins, as it is one of the best pictures out of South America and of the dawn of this century. ‘City of God: The Fight Rages On’ adds depth to the characters and their social context, packed with strong storytelling and prestige acting, putting this series in a higher league on par with the best productions from the USA and England.
Produced by Meirelles, it still maintains the premier cinematography and smart editing, which makes the favela feel lifelike. The scenario production is also recommendable since the colour schemes and aesthetics give the City of God favela a warm and fluid image while Gardênia Azul feels cold and mechanical, which translates the unwritten rules of those places where the corrupt state apparatus never arrived or left them behind.
The dialogues make the characters feel more down-to-earth, which is enhanced by the acting of an ensemble cast with strong chemistry. ‘City of God’ has cinematic action scenes but is not only about shootouts between drug dealers, militias, and police units, it shines best when humanizes stories by showing characters’ motifs and decisions, their moments of bliss and love, thus breaking with the stereotype propagated in the media that the favela is a bottomless limbo of violence and poverty, which is represented in the newspaper editor that relishes when Rocket photos show the violence in his neighborhood.
Highlighting the stage for more competent stories from the favelas
‘City of God’ started an informal Brazilian genre called ‘favela movies’ where upcoming productions would try to be as relevant as the pioneering movie or even take over its crown. Still, most of them are forgettable because they aim to exploit the suffering of an impoverished and mostly Black Rio de Janeiro, pimping their poverty in attempts to profit on an industrial scale and grab attention in international festivals. Keeping true to its roots, the series tells stories without falling into the pitfalls of a politically correct diversity protocol, which would hinder the final product.
The highlight of the series is the narrator and leading man, Rocket, portrayed by Alexandre Rodrigues. His skill brings a nuanced profile on masculinity and Blackness while also straying from the typical protagonist of crime dramas by having a photojournalist as the main character instead of a police officer or a thug.
We find Rocket in the twilight of his young manhood as he is about to become a middle-aged man. To survive, Rocket had to mature faster than his contemporaries, a characteristic that Rodrigues plays well by representing his pain and tiredness of a job that is necessary but takes its toll while keeping a jovial attitude that reminds those watching of the boy he was in the film.
The series also shows cultural and societal shifts in the favelas as Rocket’s daughter, MC Leka (Luellen de Castro), sings sexually explicit Brazilian funk lyrics, which the photographer isn’t much keen on. Leka was raised by her grandmother as her father was working on his career and moving out of the favela. By making Rocket a neglectful parent, ‘City of God’ gives a flaw that adds layers to the protagonist.
‘City of God: The Fight Rages On’ is not only a respectable series. It also serves as a stage to present once again to the world how talented Rodrigues is. The series screams to the industry that the youngster is one of the best leading men from South America and makes one wonder what directors like Spike Lee, Reginald Hudlin, Antoine Fuqua, Barry Jenkins, Dennis Villeneuve, Wes Anderson, and Michel Gondry could do with a world-class talent like him.
