'CITY OF MEN' FINDS GRACE, HUMANITY IN RIO'S SLUMS.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

Thanks to its urgent, incisive storytelling, the film "City of God" received an unexpected Oscar nomination for director Fernando Meirelles, who thereafter directed "The Constant Gardener." Meirelles' first triumph was a charged effort documenting the drug wars in Rio de Janeiro's slums. His Brazilian TV series, "City of Men," revisits the same territory through the eyes of two 13-year-old boys simply seeking to survive.

As grim as this may sound, "City of Men" can be exhilarating to watch, given its bravura sense of filmmaking and its oft-comical depictions of the antics of its precocious protagonists. This is a series that can make a dry history lesson about Napoleon play with a hyperkinetic urgency, and can then spin that history lesson into a riveting sequence linking Brazil's drug wars, the Middle-East conflict and video-game violence into a unified whole.

Douglas Silva stars as Acerelo, a sensitive, beleaguered teen; Darlan Cunha plays smooth-talker Laranjinha, who helps his pal escape from all manner of abuses. Their insights into their world one of druglord-wars and corrupt cops and simple battles for the hippest sneakers are precocious. Their prescriptions for surviving their lots in life are often, nihilistically comical and ill-advised.

Tonight's episode concerns the boys' attempts to earn or cadge money for a history-class's field trip, while sneaking Acerelo's grandmother's medicine past a border of thugs. Next week, Acerelo gets power-drunk when his sister meets with the sensual acceptance of a thug. After that, the two must figure out a new mail route for the slum that will not only translate into profits (they sell off the names of the routes) but not get them murdered by their detractors.

"City of Men" boasts the same lean, muscular storytelling of "City of God," and, given its young stars, boasts the same level of naturalistic performances. Its sardonic portrayal of the almost hopeless situation in Rio's slums somehow manages a darkly humanistic portrait of an unhinged world. That the series manages to transform what seems a tragic world into one of wit and even warmth, seems virtually miraculous.

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

CITY OF MEN - Four stars

Our rating: What: Fernando Meirelles, director of the Oscar-nominated "City of God," revisits the druglord battles in Rio de Janeiro's slums with drama and wit in this series about two 13-year-old boys attempting to survive their grueling lives, but also enjoy themselves a bit.

Where: Sundance Channel.

When: 9 tonight.

In a nutshell: Sheer hyperkinetic brilliance - the lives depicted may be depressing, but the storytelling is exhilarating.

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Photo:

(color) Darlan Cunha and Douglas Silva star in the series ``City of Men,'' debuting tonight on the Sundance Channel.