La Haine, City of God comparison

City of God is a 2002 Brazilian crime film directed by Fernando Meirelles released in its home country in 2002 and worldwide in 2003. It depicts the growth of organized crime in the Cidade de Deus suburb of Rio de Janeiro, between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1980s, with the closure of the film depicting the war between the drug dealer Lil Z and vigilante-turned-criminal Knockout Ned.

City Of God' opens with the mise-en-scene of a knife being sharpened on a stone this connotes the danger of the slum. This is significant because it represents that everything in the City Of God is a weapon. The opening frames use of rhythmical editing, which connotes the bumbling atmosphere of the slums. Each shot is half a second and either composed of the knife with blood or people singing and dancing. The dead chickens are used as conventions for the children in the city of god who run around like headless chickens; causing chaos with guns and knives. The chicken that tries to escape is a representation of the main character Rocket who escapes Lil Ze to search for a better life.

On the other hand, La Haine (1995) was directed by Mathieu Kassovitz and is set in the 1990s and the protagonists live in ‘les banlieues’ that are housing estates on the outskirts of Paris. It also deals with police brutality, racism and civil unrest. It opens with immediate context: real footage of the riots that regularly took place between youths and police between 1986 and 1996.  La Haine the first of its kind as typically in the 1990 French films were either romantic films set in the central of Paris or films set in the countryside targeted at middle class families. La Haine showed the ‘real’ Paris as it depicts the poor Areas that are hidden away from tourists.  Even the Prime Minister, Alain Juppe, at the time responded by commissioning a special screening of the film for the cabinet, which ministers were required to attend.

The opening moments of Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine are scenes from a riot depicting members of the public starting fires, flipping cars, breaking windows and stealing from shops. It also shows police trying to break up the rioters with tear gas and fighting rioters with shields and batons. The extended time footage also gives a documentary authenticity. The song playing over the scenes of the riots is ‘Burning and Looting; by Bob Marley pushes an anti-establishment message also pushes the promotion of western culture that features so heavily in the film. 

While the music fades the sounds of shouting and expositions take’s over suddenly to be replaced the news anchors voices, the news is reporting the story of the why the riots have started and giving the audiences a backstory. The film is connected through transitions shots of the time; this shows the audiences that the story will be in a short time frame.

Young men from ethnic minorities are the main social group represented in both films. Each film has a young black male protagonist: Rocket in City of God and Hubert in La Haine. The American ‘hood’ film sub-genre often has a character that is trying to reject a life of crime and escape the trappings of the ‘hood’ in which he lives. Rocket and Hubert both conform to this archetype, and reject crime as a way of life. Rocket flirts with crime but cannot go through with muggings and hold-ups due to his compassionate nature. He tries working at a supermarket but is fired for his connections to the favela. By the end of the film he has become a successful photographer because of his access to the gangs and knowledge of the favela.

Similarly, Hubert rejects the rioting of the other youths on his estate. He runs a gym that he worked hard to get a grant for, and promotes boxing as a sport for young people to get involved in. The audience first meets him in the ruined gym after the rioters have trashed and burnt it in the previous night’s riots. The film ends with Hubert sucked in to potentially committing the murder of a police officer or being murdered himself as retaliation for the shooting of his friend. Characters who try to escape the ghetto life are often stopped from doing so by circumstances out of their control.

These representations of young black males are life affirming and positive. However, other characters confirm the more negative stereotypes of youths from ethnic minorities. For example, Lil Ze in City of God and Hubert in La Haine are both drug dealers. Lil Ze is a typical crime film villain; the audience watches his rise to the top, followed by his subsequent decline and death. He is violent and psychotic, with no remorse for his actions or sympathy for his victims. He is a cocaine dealer, rapist and gang leader; out of control, hungry for power and desperate to control the favela. On the other hand, Hubert’s drug dealing is only glimpsed in one scene; elsewhere, we see him giving money to his mother for food, and to pay for his sister’s books. He deals hash to help his family; and the filmmakers do not judge him for this. The scene in which he makes a transaction is done very matter-of-factly and the audience does not even hear the conversation between Hubert and his customer because the audio highlights the conversation of Hubert’s friends, who are standing in the background of the shot. Dealing is seen as just a typical fact of life rather than dangerous or immoral.