City of God - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of City of God or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to City of God

[miriam]

One day during a pause in the shooting the group of kids who played the Runts (Caixa Baixa gang) approached screenwriter Bráulio Mantovani and asked him if it was true that the movie would end with their characters controlling the slum. When he confirmed, they asked if he could write a sequel for them to star in.

[mathew]

The two main actors, Alexandre Rodrigues ("Buscapé") and Leandro Firmino ("Zé Pequeno"), were given the option to to get paid R$10,000 (about US $3,000) up-front or to take percentage of the box office. Having no idea how successful the film would be, they chose up-front payment. Even if they were only getting 1% of the box office, it would have been 25 times more than what they got.

[linda]

To prepare the Runt (Caixa Baixa gang) for the scene in which he cries when Zé Pequeno shoots him in the foot, acting coach Fátima Toledo worked with the child--who had never acted before--and discovered his biggest fear was having a toothache. So, when the time came to shoot the scene, she told him to just remember his toothache, and when he was shot in the foot to pretend his toothache pain had moved to his foot.

[ava]

The B&W footage showing an anchor talking about the prison of "Mané Galinha" is real. The anchor is Sérgio Chapelin, a well-known Brazilian news anchor.

[beth]

Leandro Firmino (Zé Pequeno) really was from the City of God and had no ambitions to be an actor, he only went to the audition to keep his friend company.

[toni]

The director was quoted as saying that if he knew the dangers of filming the movie in a Rio favela, he wouldn't have done the movie.

[maureen]

When Knockout Ned ("Mané Galinha" in the Brazilian original) kills someone for the first time, some people who live in the City of God approach him and congratulate him on the killing. The first woman to talk to him was played by the mother of the real Knockout Ned.

[darrell]

Voted movie of the year by Empire magazine in 2003. It would be six years before another foreign-language film topped the list: Let the Right One In (2008).

[ken]

The last shot of the movie, where the little boy loses his slipper and comes back to pick it up, was not scripted. The incident really happened during the shooting and director Fernando Meirelles kept the take because it helped to highlight the boy's presence.

[charlie]

It is somehow implied that Cabeleira and Dadinho are orphans, given the fact that after the motel robbery, Cabeleira never goes to his parents' house, so he hides on a known neighbour's house. On the other hand, Dadinho never mentions his parents as he fled from the slums after the motel robbery. Buscapé, in his narration, never talks about Dadinho, Cabeleira or even Benny's family background, as he does with other characters.

[alyssa]

Fernando Meirelles wanted the cast to consist of people who had never acted before and professional actors who were not widely known. One such actor was Matheus Nachtergaele, whom Meirelles had seen in a play. While Meirelles was working on the script, however, Nachtergaele suddenly became a huge star in Brazil after starring in the hit film A Dog's Will (2000). Meirelles was a little disappointed at first but Nachtergaele promised him that he would disappear into the role of Sandro Cenoura so completely that his stardom would not distract from the film. He actually moved to the real Cidade de Deus where most of the cast lived and lived there for three months to prepare for the role.

[dustin]

At the end the Runts (Caixa Baixa gang) talk about making a list of people they want to kill. The rat boys grew to become the now feared CV (Comando Vermelho) or Red Command, the most notorious gang in Rio. The CV is also known to have a death list.

[scarlett]

All the amateur actors were recruited from "favelas" (slums) in Rio de Janeiro, and a couple of them--Buscapé/Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues), for example--actually lived in the Cidade de Deus (City of God) itself.

[bessie]

The film was not actually shot in Cidade de Deus slum, as it was too dangerous. It was shot in a neighboring, less dangerous area.

[linda]

There's a scene in which the young Buscapé (Luis Otávio) laughs at his brother Marreco (Renato de Souza) after the latter is slapped by their father. The laughter was not scripted, but Otávio couldn't stop it. So de Souza improvised, telling his young brother "not to laugh at him".

[gabriel]

The subjective take in which we see Buscapé's point of view, after Zé Pequeno (Leandro Firmino) is killed by the Runts (Caixa Baixa gang), was shot by Alexandre Rodrigues, who played Buscapé. Photography Director César Charlone insisted on teaching Rodrigues how to handle the camera, telling director Fernando Meirelles that was really important that the boy did the shot, just like his character. Meirelles accepted the suggestion.

[scarlett]

During the shooting of the sequence at the motel, when Marreco, Cabeleira and Alicate rob the clients, a real motel was used as location--and it kept working through the shooting. Later some clients complained to the management that they heard gunshots in some of the other rooms.

[terry]

The only film that year to be Oscar nominated for Best Director, but not Best Picture.

[melinda]

Seu Jorge, who plays Knockout Ned, is a samba-soul singer with cult status in Brazil. One of his songs can be found in the soundtrack.