City of God (2002 film)

City of God Portuguese Cidade de Deus is a 2002 Brazilian crime drama film codirected by Fernando Meirelles and Ktia Lund, released in its home country in 2002 and worldwide in 2003. The story was adapted by Brulio 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 Lil Z and vigilanteturnedcriminal 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 dont.

In the opening scene, chickens are being prepared for a meal when a chicken escapes and an armed gang chases after it in a favela called the Cidade de Deus City of God. The chicken stops between the gang and a young man named Rocket Buscap, who believes that the gang wants to kill him. A flashback traces Rocket, the narrator, back to the late 1960s.In the 1960s, the favela is a newly built housing project far from the centre of Rio de Janeiro, with little access to electricity and water. Three impoverished, amateur thieves known as the Tender Trio Shaggy, Clipper, and Goose rob and loot business owners Goose is Rockets brother. The thieves split part of the loot with the citizens of the City, and are protected by them in return. Several younger boys idolize the trio and one, Lil Dice Dadinho, convinces them to hold up a motel and rob its occupants. The gang agrees, resolving not to kill anyone, and tell Lil Dice to serve as lookout. They give him a gun and tell him to fire a warning shot if the police arrive but an unsatisfied Lil Dice fires a warning shot midrobbery and guns down the motel inhabitants once the gang have run off. The massacre brings the attention of the police, forcing the trio to split up Clipper joins the church, Shaggy is shot by the police while trying to escape the favela, and Goose is shot by Lil Dice after taking the thieving boys money while his friend Benny Ben watches. ........

Source: Wikipedia