Cidade de Deus
Tonight’s film comes from Brazil.
Cidade de Deus (2002)
Whether you’re learning Portuguese or just looking for something to watch, Cidade de Deus is an important film.
Upon its release in 2002, the film received wide acclaim for highlighting some of the hardships faced by people living in Brazil’s favelas. The film showed that life in Rio de Janeiro in particular was not as glamorous as classic postcards had led the world to believe.
As one of the videos below mentions, poverty is not a symptom of crime. Crime is a symptom of poverty. And as the Eduardo Bueno video below shows, poverty in Brazil is a political choice, dating back to the abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1888.
Despite abolition, nothing was done to provide housing and decent living conditions for those who were no longer enslaved. Today, favelas continue to grow and appear in Brazil for this same reason - the political choice to not provide housing and decent living conditions for all of Brazil’s citizens.
On top of this neglect, the communities in Brazil’s favelas suffer persecution at the hands of the state. Using the cover of the ridiculous ‘War on Drugs’, the state has created violent police militias, armed to the teeth and sent to commit violence against the communities that live in Brazil’s favelas.
There are countless examples, but one of the most recent was on 6 May 2021, in the favela of Jacarezinho, in Rio de Janeiro, where a police militia killed 28 people.
Further showing that justice is a subjective notion owned by the powerful, the police have since gotten away with declaring that the documents relating to the slaughter of Jacarezinho are to be kept secret for the next five years.
Unlike most of the major news corporations, more reliable groups have called what happened at Jacarezinho exactly what it was - a slaughter - a Chacina do Jacarezinho.
To keep up to date with community projects in Brazil’s favelas and the fight for the rights of all of the country’s citizens, the following website provides lots of articles and videos on both their app and YouTube channel :
For more information and useful links to follow the news in Brazil, the following post can be found on the How to Learn Languages website and YouTube channel :
If you’re learning Portuguese, the following video explains the history of favelas in Brazil :
O Avanço das Favelas - Eduardo Bueno
The following videos are summaries of the film’s themes :
Como Cidade de Deus representa a pobreza com tanto realismo
If you’re unsure when and how to use subtitles, advice can be found here :
How to Use Subtitles to Learn a Language
If you’re interested in learning Portuguese, there’s a How to Learn Languages guide :
Take care, and enjoy the process!
