# 22 City of God

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 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 criminal Knockout Ned. The tagline is "If you run, the buck catches; if you stay, the buck 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, Phellipe Haagensen, DouglasSilva, Alice Braga and Seu Jorge. Most of the actors were, in factre siof favelas such as Vidigal and the Cidade de Deus itself.

The film attained worldwide critical acclaim, receiving four Academy Award nominations in 2004: Best Cinematography (César 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. If it had been nominated, it would have been ineligible the next year for any other category.

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.

Directed by	Fernando Meirelles Kátia Lund (co-director)
Produced by	Andrea Barata Ribeiro Mauricio Andrade Ramos Elisa Tolomelli Walter Salles
Screenplay by	Bráulio Mantovani
Based on	City of God by Paulo Lins
Starring	Alexandre Rodrigues Alice Braga Leandro Firmino Phellipe Haagensen Douglas Silva Jonathan Haagensen Matheus Nachtergaele Seu Jorge Roberta Rodrigues Graziella Moretto
Music by	Ed Cortês Antonio Pinto
Cinematography	César Charlone
Edited by	Daniel Rezende
Production company	O2 Filmes Globo Filmes StudioCanal Wild Bunch
Distributed by	Miramax Films (US) Buena Vista International
Release dates	18 May 2002 (Cannes) 30 August 2002 (Brazil)
Running time	130 minutes 135 minutes (
Country	Brazil
Language	Portuguese (Brazilian)
Budget	R$8.5 million
Box office	$30,641,770

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