City of God

"If you run, the beast catches you; if you stay, the beast eats you."

2002 2h 9m PT

🙌

8.4

BANGER

🔥

91%

CERTIFIED FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

8.6

IMDB

★8.4TMDB · 8,491🍅91%Rotten Tomatoes●79Metacritic★8.6IMDB · 869,206

DramaCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an ambitious drug dealer diving into a dangerous life of crime.

“If you run, the beast catches you; if you stay, the beast eats you.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Alexandre Rodrigues
Buscapé
Leandro Firmino
Zé Pequeno / Dadinho
Phellipe Haagensen
Bené
Douglas Silva
Dadinho
Jonathan Haagensen
Cabeleira
Matheus Nachtergaele
Sandro Cenoura
Seu Jorge
Mané Galinha
Jefechander Suplino
Alicate

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Fernando Meirelles
Writers: Bráulio Mantovani
Languages: Portuguese
Countries: Brazil, France, Germany

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $3.3M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 9.3× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 24 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: Brazil, France, Germany.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Fernando Meirelles, shot by César Charlone. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Antonio Pinto. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Daniel Rezende shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Alexandre Rodrigues and Leandro Firmino and Phellipe Haagensen carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Fernando Meirelles directs. César Charlone behind the camera. Antonio Pinto scores. Daniel Rezende cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in Brazil, France, Germany. Dialogue in Portuguese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $3.3M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Made its money back 9.3× over at the box office.
3Released 24 years ago.
4International production across 3 countries: Brazil, France, Germany.
5Directed by Fernando Meirelles, shot by César Charlone. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Antonio Pinto. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Daniel Rezende shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Alexandre Rodrigues and Leandro Firmino and Phellipe Haagensen carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "If you run, the beast catches you; if you stay, the beast eats you.".
10IMDB entry: tt0317248 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 19 themes, including "police brutality", "street gang", "photographer", "gangster".
12Released under 12 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: César Charlone
Original score: Antonio Pinto
Editing: Daniel Rezende
Production design: Tulé Peak
Costume design: Inês Salgado
Makeup / hair: Anna Van Steen
VFX supervisor: Renato Batata
Sound: Martín Hernández
Runtime: 129 min · 2h 9m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $3,300,000
Box office: $30,641,770
Return: 929% of budget
Original language: PT
Certification (US): R
IMDB: City of God (2002)
Rotten Tomatoes: 91% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 79/100
IMDB rating: 8.6/10 · 869,206 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Nominated for 4 Oscars. 76 wins & 50 nominations total

Also by

Fernando Meirelles

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Crazypiglady2023-05-06
It’s a great film and well worthy of its the respect it has. It’s gruelling too, the 18 rating is due to the thread running through the film of continuous and ruthless violence of gangs trying to control their drug area. The is the story told through the eyes of ‘Rocket’ who avoids getting in to the gang war of his brother and friends by trying to find a safer life. The film combines slick production without losing a genuine documentary feel which I think it is why it’s so enduring. While it achieves a feeling of reality, it isn’t specifically a true story. However, the Cidade de Deus is real (being created to rehouse the slums away from Rio de Janeiro) and this story of its underworld and the film’s production makes one believe it may not be too far from the truth. There is hope in the story but not a lot.
CinemaSerf2024-05-20
★ 7/10
Told by way of an occasionally narrated retrospective, "Rocket" (Alexandre Rodrigues) tells us a story of his childhood in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Growing up in a community of newly built boxes, without power or plumbing, that reminded me of a row of concrete beach huts, the community is pretty lawless. The crime is largely to confined to pettier crimes, but as aspirations grow so does the scale of the criminality. A raid on a motel-cum-brothel is supposed to make everyone extra cash, but their inventive young watchman "Li'l Dice" (Douglas Silva) hates being left out and so does a little augmenting of his own. Brutal and attention grabbing. Next the cops crack down, bodies pile up and the societal order starts to change. It's this young man who grows up into the leading drug-peddling hoodlum amongst a now much more developed township where, tempered only by his more diplomatic childhood friend "Bené" (Phellipe Haagensen), the newly named "Li'l Zé" (Leandro Firmino) is ruling the roost. Curiously, his own form of government proves more stable for the residents, and although many are addicts there is a certain degree of law-and-order. Then the runts start to intervene. These are the young children with no hope, no families and only the dream of becoming their own version of "Li'l Zé" one day too. Gradually, the empire expands until it's only "Carrot" (Matheus Nachtergaele) who stands against him. When tragedy strikes very close to home for the kingpin, though, the uneasy peace between the two sections breaks out into an open warfare that drags in the sharpshooting army vet "Knockout Ned" (Seu Jorge), arms all the enthusiastic children and creates an environment that isn't safe for anyone - and where the police keep their distance in the hope that they will just all just slaughter each other. It's lucky that "Rocket" can use a camera. His boss wants publicity to illustrate how dominant and powerful he is. The newspapers want the photographs too. If the young man can walk the tightrope carefully, he might find himself well placed to capitalise on his unique access to a story that by now is gripping their nation. This is a fascinatingly well put together depiction of the worst of human nature; a dog eat dog world, where traditional humanity is scarce and the virtues of a not so benign dictatorship are exposed for all to see. The characterisations are mostly brutal and exploitative, yet there is a place for love and loyalty too amidst a poverty stricken population that craves basics like food and running water and is oblivious to death in the streets. The story is well supplemented by some engaging supporting characters like "Steak n' Fries", "Goose", "Shaggy" and "Thiago" (Daniel Zettel or is it really Timothée Chalamet?). The writing delivers powerfully but sparingly. We don't have loads of waffling dialogue, and there's also quite a bit of dark humour contained to not so much lighten the mood as to enhance the perception amongst most of the population that kill or be killed was a perfectly reasonable mantra. Firmino, Haagensen and Rodrigues deliver extremely well here in this most impressively photographed and intense look at a society where the top dog was only top by feeding and starving his followers. It's not especially graphic, I found, just a poignant look at survival of the fittest, the shrewdest and the luckiest. There's also a distinct lack of religiosity throughout, too! If you can see this at a cinema, then do - it's based on a true story and isn't an easy watch.

Production companies