City of Men

AroView: Salty Rio back-blocks melodrama from the producers of CITY OF GOD revolving around two orphaned street kids on the brink of adulthood faced with damning evidence about their fathers’ pasts.

Not as visceral as its much-admired cinematic cousin, opting instead for a less stylised, more grounded and recognizably human engagement with two best friends, Ace and Wallace, as they desperately search for guidance and familial belonging while becoming involved in a deadly turf-war between rival youth gangs. Occasionally spells out the social commentary in capital letters, but ultimately burrows beneath teenage tough-guy hubris to serve as something of a panacea to CITY OF GOD’s rabidly cynical dog-eat-dog world. A similar cast of relative amateurs lend weight to the overall atmosphere of authenticity.