http://www.backstage.com/bso/reviews-movie-tv-reviews/film-review-gangster-s-paradise-jerusalema-1004097091.story
With it's Oscar nomination for Best Picture, last year's "District 9" marked a major leap for South African–set movies. Now comes another reason for cinematic celebration from that country: "Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema," a film about crime and poverty in the worst part of Johannesburg that shares much in common with Fernando Mereilles' landmark Brazilian film, "City Of God."
Setting his film mostly in the worst slums of South Africa, writer-director Ralph Ziman uses the area to sock home his message about a dead-end, crime-ridden world that has sucked once-promising kids dry in post-apartheid Johannesburg. It's a side of the country we haven't seen portrayed often since Mandela came into power. To say this film is no "Invictus" is an understatement. Where that film offered hope and inspiration, this one revels in squalor and desperation.
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