How far can it be argued that your chosen films provide a realistic representation of the people and places they focus on?

The representation of poverty in both La Haine and City of God are quite different from each other. It can be argued that City of God portrays the theme visually by showing the favelas and character’s situations, but it’s shown cosmetically. We as an audience don’t receive a true, raw sense of poverty, and don’t see the impact it has on people. La Haine does show poverty, but only subtly. The ‘roof’ scene provides us with a small piece were two of the central characters complain and argue about the price of the hot dogs available. The price was 5 Francs for 1 hot dog, which is equivalent to the price of 50p. There is a shot in the film coming from the viewpoint of Hubert, when we see several people from the projects situated in the park’s playground. This connotes the sense that people are there because they have nothing better to do, an absence of a job, income, and purpose. This gives a big sense of poverty as we see the impact of it for the people suffering from it.  City of God’s setting and potential issues aren’t truly explored, creating an unrealistic representation regarding poverty; the setting could be a simple backdrop for a generic crime film.

The start of the films give the audience a sense of how realistic each film is probable going to play out. La Haine starts out with actual archive clips of riot footage, and then plays out into a fake news report that looks real enough, giving the sense of realism and setting the themes and tone of the film in the process. A documentary style is created in this first scene, which blurs the boundary between fiction and reality. City of God’s starting scene begins stylistically with the chase of a chicken. So already, the focus is on a ridiculous chase sequence, with many edits and a variation of shots. A typical crime film already has followed the conventions and rules that have been set. The high key lighting used on the setting enforces an edited favela, not the actual place. La Haine's setting in the projects and in Paris seem gritty, and authentic. Both settings on both films are filmed on location, but one is more real than the other.

The nature of violence is quite contrasting between the two films also. La Haine’s riot footage is powerful as it’s actual footage, and the film is set in regards to this, the impact and consequences of violence. Throughout the film, Vinz is contemplating killing a police officer, and he must take into account the inevitable result if he acts on his temptation. Hubert several times reminds Vinz of this. The audience tolerates City of God’s violence, when the first act is shown we are used to the many, many acts that are to come. A recognisable example is when Lil Ze is walking through an alleyway and one of his friends tries to communicate with him and he simply shoots him and walks away. Quick and unnecessary murder reinforces an unrealistic representation, and the consequence seems to be next to nothing. We don’t see the impact of Lil Ze’s actions here, either physically or mentally. Which decreases a realistic nature of violence in the film.