Alexandre Rodrigues

In City of God (2002), Alexandre Rodrigues gives us someone to stay with while the film moves at speed through frightening violence. His Buscapé, the narrator and protagonist, remains a person we can imagine having an ordinary life. We value the performance for its naturalism and its quiet attention to that possibility. Rodrigues makes a reflective character hold our interest amid people who are much quicker to impose themselves. It is a substantial contribution to a film whose pace could easily leave its people behind.

Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund direct him alongside Leandro Firmino as the frightening Zé Pequeno and Phellipe Haagensen as the warmer Bené. Together, they allow humour and tenderness to survive without diminishing the brutality. We found City of God hard to bear because these actors make people growing accustomed to violence seem so capable of ordinary lives. Rodrigues is central to that feeling. We have more trouble with the cutting and music, which can encourage us to enjoy violence that the performances make painful.

After that breakthrough, Rodrigues worked in Brazilian films and telenovelas, with Cafundó (2005) and The Other Side of Paradise (2017) among the intervening credits. He returned to Buscapé for City of God: The Fight Rages On (2024). That return makes sense for an actor whose reflective manner suited the character so well. It also raises a question about how often he will be asked to do something substantially different.

The restrictions of casting matter here: roles tied to favela origins have limited his opportunities to play other sorts of people. We would be wary of treating that as evidence of a narrow talent. Equally, one persuasive performance cannot tell us how he would fare with every kind of part. What we can recommend is the patient, naturalistic acting that gives City of God much of its humanity. Start there, but expect the cutting and music occasionally to work against his restraint.