Cidade de Deus

City of God, an infamous favela of Rio de Janiero, a slum city. I watched the movie City of God last night and it was so disturbing! The movie is based on a true story that spanned the late 60's, 70's and early 80's. It was everything that you can imagine what living in hell would be like. Death, killing, drugs, poverty, fear, rape, war... The most upsetting thing about it was that it was a war of youth and children. Kids had guns and killed each other. Young men thought honour and prestige were associated with their first kill. Aaaahhhhh!! I read an article on the movie last night too and a journalist said this about the movie and real life situation:

Foreign audiences may well have found City of God’s violence stomach-churning, particularly that involving very young children, but the reality today, 30 years after the film was set, is far worse. Drug gangs are now better organised and armed, and child recruitment is more common. Nearly 3,000 people are shot dead each year in Rio, where 11,000 young men are thought to be involved in armed drug gangs. About half of these are estimated to be under 18 and handle weaponry such as assault rifles, ground-to-air rocket-launchers and grenades.

I don't even know what else to say about it, except that it made me cry out to God for a group of people in a place that seems so devoid of God. God is there, they just can't see him. Jesus reveal yourself in Cidade de Deus.