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Bus 174
Ônibus 174 (2002, Brazil)
José Padilha
This has been oh-so-often compared to aforementioned City of God, but I like this much better. On June 12, 2000, Sandro di Nascimento hijacked a bus, and for four and a half hours it was broadcasted live all across the country. This incident would be known as Ônibus 174, the [...]

City of God
Cidade de Deus (2002, Brazil)
Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund
You’ve heard the hype: the focus of the story is on ‘Cidade de Deus’ (‘City Of God’), a housing project constructed by the Brazilian government in the 1960s to isolate the poor from Rio de Janeiro’s city centre. It chronicles of the growth of gang [...]

Motorcylce Diaries
Diarios de Motocicleta (2004)
Walter Salles
As a work of fiction, it was enjoyable. If the movie wasn’t based on such a popular figure whose face is on every T-shirts and posters, I’d have enjoyed it more and forget my usual nit-picking on the cult of Che and have less reason to feel such irritation about [...]

Mysterious Skin (US, 2005)
directed by Gregg Araki
Two boys. One can’t remember. The other can’t forget.
It’s based on a novel by Scott Heim, about two boys subjected to sexual abuse in their childhood, and their different coping mechanism: Brian has nightmares and blackouts accompanied with nosebleeds of five hours he lost—couldn’t remember—when he was 8 years [...]