Cidade de Homens, City of Men.

City of Men, directed by Paulo Morelli, is a moving film.
Set in towns and gang lands near Rio, the violence presented in this film mimics real life to a tee. The story is of two friends, Ace and Laranjinha, who are just about to turn eighteen. Ace's father is dead, and Laranjinha has no idea who his father is. Since he can remember, Laranjinha has been on a quest to find who fathered him, and thanks to Ace, he does. While all this is going on, Ace's girlfriend leaves him to go get a job in the city, so they can buy a house, leaving him alone with their son. All is not well in their town though, some gang dealings have left people mutinous, and people are getting killed.Ace's cousin , Midnight, is gang leader of their small town, and in his band of cronies are Fasto and Fiel. Both, without Midnight's knowledge, plan on uprooting Midnight, and killing him. When Mightnight suspects a plot being afoot, he believes its only Fiel, and makes Fasto go and kill him. Instead of killing him, they both flee town to get guns, and precipitate a gang war the likes of which god has never seen.Laranjinha is involved with Feils sister, which seems to ally him to their side of the cause, and Ace on the otherhand, appears to be with midnight, only due to his relation to him. Thus a rift is formed between friends.
Fiel and Fasto take over what was once Midnights territory, and sets out to get Ace, and anyone else deemed loyal to Midnight. At this time, with midnight exiled, Laranjinha's father was found and released from prison.Laranjinha nad his father's bond grows, and Midnight and Ace's does as well. Because of his affiliations with Midnight, Ace flees town to join him.
It is here that the movie takes a twist that could shatter the two friends lives. Ace learns from Midnight that Laranjinha's father was the one who murdered his dad.This widens the rift between friends, and causes Ace to want revenge. Bent on killing Laranjinha, he goes back to town with Midnight and the gang, to reclaim the land for their own.As the gang war rages, the two friends are forced to make life altering decisions- whether their fathers pasts will decide their futures. So, in the end, friend chooses friend, and they leave the town in the midst of a gang war.

The cinematography was beautiful and smooth, and the dialogue was very realistic. Spoken word was Portugeuse, with English subtitles, and the run time was 110 minutes.

All being said and done, I give this film a 5 out of 5 stars. Above is my reasoning. Dig In.