| Original Title: Cidade de Deus |
|---|
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 Rocket (Buscapé), who believes that the gang wants to kill him. The timeline then flashes back to ten years earlier, as Rocket tells the story of how he got himself into that position.
Three thieves known as the "Tender Trio" (
Trio Ternura)—Shaggy, Clipper, and Goose (Cabeleira, Alicate and Marreco)—are terrorizing local businesses with armed holdups; Goose is Rocket's brother. In
Robin Hood fashion, they split part of the loot with the citizens of a
favela called the City of God (Cidade de Deus), and are protected by them in return. Several younger boys idolise the trio and follow them around—one such hanger-on, known as Li'l Dice (Dadinho), convinces them to hold up a motel and rob its occupants. The gang agree but, resolving not to kill anyone, tell Li'l Dice 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, Li'l Dice 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. Clipper joins the church, and Shaggy is shot by the police while trying to escape with his girlfriend. Goose is shot by Li'l Dice after attempting to rob the younger boy and his friend Benny (Bené), who both have been hiding out and committing crimes on their own since the motel incident.
The timeline jumps forward a number of years. Rocket has become a part of the "Groovies", a
hippie-like group of youths that enjoy smoking
marijuana. He develops an interest in
photography by taking pictures of his friends, especially one girl that he is infatuated with, but his attempts to get close to her are ruined by a group of younger troublemakers known as "The Runts" (Caixa Baixa, "Low Gang"). Li'l Dice now calls himself "Li'l Zé" ("Zé Pequeno"), and along with his childhood friend Benny has established a drug empire by eliminating all of the competition—except for one dealer named Carrot.
A relative peace has come over the City of God under the reign of Li'l Zé, who avoids the police's attention by accosting and having his henchmen kill one of the Runts, who had been committing petty crimes in the area. Zé plans to kill his last rival, Carrot, but is stopped by Benny, who is a friend of Carrot's. Eventually, along with the girl that he has wooed away from Rocket, Benny decides to leave the criminal life behind to live on a farm and throws a farewell party. Zé, unable to find a girl who will dance with him at the party, humiliates a peace-loving man named Knockout Ned (Mané Galinha). Later, Benny is gunned down by a former drug dealer, Neguinho, who was aiming for Zé. Benny was the only man holding Li'l Zé back from taking over Carrot's (Cenoura) business. His death leaves Zé in danger and Carrot in fear.
Following Benny's death, Zé rapes Ned's girlfriend, then kills his uncle and younger brother. Ned, looking for revenge, sides with Carrot. After Ned kills one of Li'l Zé's men and wounds Zé himself, a war breaks out between the two rival factions that engulfs the whole of the Cidade de Deus. Both sides enlist more and more "soldiers", with Zé providing weapons for the Runts on the condition that they will fight for him. Jealous of Ned's notoriety in the newspapers, Zé has Rocket take photos of him and his gang. Unknown to Rocket, a reporter decides to publish the developed prints in the daily paper. Rocket then fears for his life, mistakenly believing that Zé will want to kill him, although Zé is actually very pleased with his increased notoriety.
The story has come around full circle to the start of the movie. Confronted by the gang, Rocket is surprised that Zé is asking him to take a picture of the gang. Just as Rocket prepares to take the photograph, however, Carrot arrives and a gunfight ensues between the two gangs, and later the police. Ned is killed by a boy who has infiltrated his gang to avenge his father, who was killed in an earlier scene by Ned during a bank robbery. Li'l Zé and Carrot are arrested and Carrot is taken away to be paraded in front of the press. Zé is shaken down for money, humiliated, and finally released, all while being secretly photographed by Rocket. After the police officers leave, the Runts surround Zé and murder him in retribution for having killed one of their friends earlier in the movie. Rocket takes pictures of Zé's dead body and goes to the newspaper.
Rocket is seen in the newspaper office looking at all of his photographs through a magnifying glass, and deciding whether or not to put the pictures of the crooked police officers in the newspaper, or the picture of Zé's dead body. The photos of the cops would make him famous but put him in danger, while the photos of Li'l Zé would guarantee him a job at the paper. He decides to take the safe route, and the newspaper runs his picture of Zé's bullet-ridden corpse.
The story ends with the Runts walking around the City of God, making a hit list of the dealers they plan to kill in order to take over the drug business. They mention that a
Comando Vermelho ("Red Command") is coming.
