Choreographing people's power in Argentina

The amazingly choreographed opening sequence of the Brazilian film Cidade de Deus (2002) follows teenage photographer Busca-pé through the alleys of the Rio de Janeiro favela City of God as he chases a chicken until he is trapped squarely between a line of heavily armed police and a host of more heavily armed drug lords during the gang wars of the 1990s. The camera then whirls around Busca-pé as he shrinks back to the child of the 1960s in the early days of the city. 1 One of the best reviews is that of Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times. His review is found at http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/2003/01/012401.html accessed 2 December 2003. We accompany him on his life journey through three decades in which the government-sponsored housing project deteriorates into the infamous slum that survives only by drug trafficking, so that by the end of the film, when we are back in the globalised present, we are thoroughly familiar not only with all of the characters who are about to shoot at us from the gang side, but also with the logic and ethics of the drug economy from which these fascinating individuals have emerged

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