City of God

City of God is a 2002 Brazil film directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund released in its home country in 2002 and worldwide in 2003. It was adapted by Bráulio Mantovani from the 1997 novel of the same name written by Paulo Lins which are both based on a true story; the war between Knockout Ned and Li'l Zé is based on their real life counterparts . It stars Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Jonathan Haagensen, Douglas Silva and Seu Jorge. The tagline is "Fight and you'll never survive..... Run and you'll never escape." Most of the actors were, in fact, residents of favela such as Vidigal and the Cidade de Deus itself. The film received 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... full article at wikipedia