City of God was probably the best movie I’ve watched in the past year. It was an action-packed thriller, but it also got me thinking a lot about how it’s so difficult to break out of life in the favelas.

In the movie, a gang leader named Li’l Zé built up an enormous amount of power, coming close to controlling the entire “City of God,” a favela in Rio de Janeiro. For young kids, joining the gang was a way to not only be cool but also to make money. There were various different tiers of gang members, from sentries to soldiers to drug salesmen. However, it takes a lot of time for young kids to make their way up the totem pole, and as one of the “Runts,” a group of young wannabe gang leaders remarked, it wasn’t worth it. However, leaving the gang life was also difficult. One of the main motifs of the film was “a hood never stops, he just takes a break.” Once a boy gets involved with the gang lifestyle, it’s often too late. Maybe he gets hooked on drugs, and wastes his money away. Or maybe he’s unable to continue his education, and doesn’t have the skills to find a job in order to make an honest living. It seems that the movie’s message is that the situation never improves in the favela, for it’s clear when the Runts kill Li’l Zé that the cycle will just start all over again.