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A gangster epic with a geopolitical twist, Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema prefaces its portrait of a young man’s rise in the criminal underworld with the assurance that the story was “inspired by real events.” The picture was shot in South Africa and spans almost 15 years between post-apartheid and present day; the country’s struggle for freedom and free enterprise informs much of the action. And yet there is a competing sense that the “real events” that served as inspiration occurred in a series of theaters in which writer/director Ralph Ziman took in the gangster canon, from Scarface to Shaft and all the way to Gomorrah. Al Capone is invoked early and often, hip hop-style, giving the mistaken impression that Ziman might not intend to play the genre’s clichés absolutely, numbingly straight.

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REVIEW: Clichés Fly Like Bullets in Gangster’s Paradise: Jerusalema