Lessons On Movies.com
An ESL / EFL Online Gap-Fill Quiz on City Of God

City of God is a 2002 Brazilian crime film directed by Fernando Meirelles and co-directed by Kátia Lund. The story was by Bráulio Mantovani from the 1997 of the same name written by Paulo Lins. However, the movie characters are not fictitious and the is based upon real events. It the growth of organized in the Cidade de Deus suburb of Rio de Janeiro between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1980s. The end of the film shows the war between the drug dealer Li'l Zé and the criminal Knockout Ned. City of God was third in Film4's "50 Films to See Before You ", and No.6 on The Guardian's "The 25 Best Action Movies Ever".

The movie’s is: "If you run, the beast catches you; if you stay, the beast eats you", (a Portuguese proverb similar to the English "Damned if you do, damned if you don't"). It the hopelessness of being involved in criminal activity in Rio’s favelas. Most of the were from real-life favelas, including the real-life City of God itself. About a hundred children were hand- and placed into an "actors' workshop" for several months. Their training on simulating authentic street-war scenes, such as a hold-up, a scuffle, a shoot-out, etc. After , it was too dangerous for the young return to their old lives in the favelas and so help groups were set up for them to lives elsewhere.