City of God | |
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Original poster
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Directed by |
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Produced by |
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Screenplay by | Bráulio Mantovani |
Based on |
City of God by Paulo Lins |
Starring | |
Music by |
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Cinematography | César Charlone |
Edited by | Daniel Rezende |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | Miramax Films |
Release date
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Running time
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130 minutes 135 minutes (TIFF) |
Country | Brazil |
Language | Portuguese |
Budget | $3.3 million |
Box office | $30.6 million |
City of God (Portuguese: Cidade de Deus) is a 2002 Brazilian hood 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 plot is loosely based on real events. It depicts 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 depicting the war between the drug dealer Li'l Zé and vigilante-turned-criminal Knockout Ned. The tagline is "If you run, the beast catches you; if you stay, the beast eats you", a proverb analogous to the English "Damned if you do, damned if you don't".
The cast includes Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Phellipe 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.
The film received worldwide critical acclaim, receiving four Academy Award nominations in 2004: Best Cinematography (César Charlone), Best Director (Meirelles), Best Editing (Daniel Rezende) and Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) (Mantovani). Before that, in 2003 it had been chosen to be Brazil's runner for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but it was not nominated to be one of the five finalists.