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Assignment

City of God

City of God (Portuguese: Cidade de Deus) is a 2002 Brazilian crime drama film directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, released in its home country in 2002 and worldwide in 2003. It was adapted by Bráulio Mantovani from the 1997 novel of the same name written by Paulo Lins. It depicts the growth of organized crime in the Cidade de Deus suburb of Rio de Janeiro, between the end of the '60s and the beginning of the '80s, with the closure of the film depicting the war between the drug dealer Li'l Ze and criminal Knockout Ned. The tagline is "Fight and you'll never survive. Run and you'll never escape."

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.

The film received four Academy Award nominations in 2004: Best Cinematography (Cesar Charlone), Best Directing (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.

Meirelles and Lund went on to create the City of Men TV series and film City of Men, which share some of the actors (notably leads Douglas Silva and Darlan Cunha) and their setting with City of God.( Harmondsworth, 1972)

The movie begins depicting chickens being prepared for a meal. A chicken escapes and an armed gang chases after it. The chicken comes to a stop between the gang and a young man named Buscape, who believes that the gang want to kill him. The timeline then flashes back to ten years earlier, as Buscape tells the story of how he got himself into that position.

Three thieves known as the "Tender Trio" (Trio Ternura) - Cabeleira, Alicate and Marreco (Buscape's brother) - are terrorizing local businesses with armed holdups. In Robin Hood fashion, they split part of the loot with the citizens of a favela called the Cidade de Deus ("City of God"), and are protected by them in return. Several younger boys idolise the trio and follow them around - one such hanger-on, known as Dadinho, convinces them to hold up a motel and rob its occupants. The gang agrees but, resolving not to kill anyone, tell Dadinho that he is too young to accompany them and must serve as lookout. They give him a gun and tell him to fire a warning shot if the police arrive. Unsatisfied with this, Dadinho fires a warning shot mid-robbery and proceeds to fulfill his bloodlust by slaughtering all the inhabitants of the motel once the gang have run off. The massacre brings on the attention of the police, forcing the Tender Trio to leave the slum. Alicate joins the church, and Cabeleira is shot by the police while trying to escape with his ...