How Significant are Genre and Narrative to Your Understanding of Your Focus Films?

Both of my focus films use genre and narrative in a different way, one for entertainment and one to make a comment on a social situation. While both films focus on crime and gang rivalries, City of God fits into the category of a generic crime film and world cinema, while La Haine fits the category of social realism and national cinema.

City of God uses many conventions found in crime films, such as drugs and violence but these things are found in many countries around the world, so it cannot be claimed that it is making a point on Rio itself and the problems faced by the people there. Similar to La Haine, the police play a part, though in City of God they are the corrupt police we would find in any other crime film. In La Haine however they are the enemy for most of the film and we view them as the criminals because we only ever see them through the eyes of the trio.

The Trio are victims of the crime committed by the police and the crimes the three characters themselves commit are not because they are morally corrupt but because they need to, to survive. For example, Hubert sells drugs because he needs to support his mother and siblings. This greatly differs from Lil Zee, the generic crime lord, who sells drugs for power and control.  The victim of crime in City of God is Rocket but this is because he plays a binary opposite to Lil Zee. These two character types can be found in many crime films, whereas the characters in La Haine are specific to Paris and the problems there. 

La Haine is making a comment on the situation in Paris and draw inspiration from real life events such as the death of a black youth at the hands of the police.
City of God is based on real life events but the story isn’t really making any comment on a situation or a person’s life. It is simply an entertaining film.