City of God Descrption

The main character in Cidade de Deus, the City of God, is a place, not a person. The City of God is a government housing project started in the '60s. By the beginning of the '80s it has become one of the most dangerous places in Rio de Janeiro.
We see the story of this housing project through the eyes of the narrator: Busca-Pé, a poor black kid too frail and scared to become an outlaw but too smart to be content with an underpaid job. Busca-Pé (Rocket) grows up in the City of God, overcoming adversity to become a photographer. He records the critical moments of the film with his camera.

The film moves from the late '60s through the '70s and into the '80s. We watch as successive criminal gangs grow to dominate the neighborhood, we see the relationship between drug dealers, arms merchants and the police, and we see the reaction of the neighborhood to the violence, as they cheer on vigilantes who later turn criminal.

In particular, the film offers a peek at the informal rules that govern the City of God, as drug dealers become a parallel version of the state, children quickly learn that violence is the key to power, and violence breaks out whenever the current power structure is threatened. It also shows how people live in the absence of the state, where the strong make and enforce their own rules.

Taken with substantial modifications from www.cidadededeus.globo.com