Comparison of power poverty and conflict in a prophet and city of god.

All three of these themes play big part in both city of god and a prophet but some more then others in each film. I think that the theme of poverty is much more prominent in city of god than it is in a prophet.  One reason for this is because city of god is set in what is at first a small shanty where the in habitants have to depend largely on the tender trio to get buy, even after a few years when city of god has grown to a small, the streets are dirty and people homes appear torn and empty. It could also bee considered that it is because of the poverty of the shanty town that made lil ze desire to be a powerful gangster which would mean that the theme of poverty drives the story forward

In a prophet we don’t much of the story set outside of the prison. One of the few scenes set in the outside world, Malik visits his friend at his apartment. From what we see of it, the apartment seems fairly small and unfurnished. This is the only sense of poverty we see in the film and dose not drive the narrative the same as city of god because we know next to nothing about Malik’s life before prison (however it is likely he lived in some state of poverty as we know he did not finish school.

Power is also a big part of both films. In city of god we see the journey that lil ze takes from being a small time crook/con on the streets to being one of the biggest drug lords in south America. In a prophet we see Malik go from assaulting police officers (which may have been in self defence) to owner of his own drug smuggling operation. However the level of power each character holds and the reason why they attain it is different.

One of the reasons why lil became a criminal may be because (as I said above) because of his desire to escape the clutches of poverty in the shantytown he grow up. But a big part of it his desire to grab power could because he just a psychopathic by nature. This seen when as a young child he goes round the motel the tender trio just robbed and shoots everyone in there whilst laughing. In a prophet Malik is forced to kill a Muslim by Cesar. After he kills the target he comes under the protection of Cesar and his gang and eventually becomes an integral part of it. Whislt towards the end of the film malik untroubled by the violent acts he must to perform in the drug world.at the beginning he dose not cope that well. When he is first told that he must murder someone, it is clearly visible that the idea of killing someone causes him much emotional distress. Even when he becomes a member of the Corsican mafia and is use to have to beat people up he stll see’s the corpse of the man he killed where ever he gose showing that he is not completely keen with murder.

The same cannot be said for lil ze. Through out the movie he kills possible hundreds of people and it seem to cause to him no visible distress. The only death that dose effect him is the death of his best friend Benny. The city of god also seem’s to make a statement about power. That statement being that power is a never ending cycle that keeps getting bigger. Frist we have the tender trio. Three guys how rob trucks at gunpoint when they drive through their town, then lil ze takes over and by his late teens he own all but one drug selling groups in Rio De Janeiro. Then lil ze is killed by the runts who are around the age of 10, and they start making a hit list of people they need to kill in order to take over the drug empire.

In a prophet there is a similar cycle with Cesar and Malik. At first Cesar is the biggest crime boss in the prison and practically owns the prison and Malik is an uneducated 19 year old of North African descent sent to prison for assaulting a police officer. By the time Malik is released he is running his own drug bracket and Cesar is left in prison with a fraction of his former power. A prophet also seems make a point that the environment some one is in will effect what they become. At first Malik is a small time offender but then changes into a big time crook.