Characters, era, genre of film, location, story line, topics
City of God (Portuguese: Cidade de Deus) is a 2002 Brazilian crime drama film directed by Fernando Meirelles and co-directed by Kátia Lund, released in its home country in 2002 and worldwide in 2003. The story was adapted by Bráulio Mantovani from the 1997 novel of the same name written by Paulo Lins, but the characters are not fabricated and the plot is based upon real events. It shows the growth of organized crime in the Cidade de Deus suburb of Rio de Janeiro, between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1980s, with the closure of the film showing the war between the drug dealer Li'l Zé and criminal Knockout Ned. The tagline is "If you run, the beast catches; if you stay, the beast eats", (a proverb analogous to the English "Damned if you do, damned if you don't"). The cast includes Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Jonathan Haagensen, Douglas Silva, Alice Braga and Seu Jorge. Most of the actors were, in fact, residents of favelas such as Vidigal and the Cidade de Deus itself.
Sound-dialogue and music:
The fast music at the beginning and the extreme close up shots of the knife being sharpened against a stone indicates that they are killing chickens to prepare for a meal and celebration as people are also playing instruments and dancing. The dialogue is aggressive talk in portuguese from the gang and from a young man and his friend who talk about not coming in contact with the gang incase they will kill him.
Editing styles, features, camera movements and framing:
The editing styles and features in the 'City of God' opening sequence are clear as the fast, intrusive edits show two inter-connected storylines and take the audience back twenty years.
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