Trivia
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Spoilers (4)
All of the amateur actors were recruited from favelas (slums) in Rio de Janeiro, and a couple of them - eg. Buscapé/Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) - actually lived in the Cidade de Deus (City of God) itself.
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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 for the killing. The first woman to talk to him was played by the mother of the real Knockout Ned.
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The director was once quoted as saying that if he knew the dangers of filming the movie in a Rio favela, he wouldn't have done the movie.
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In the DVD commentary track, director Fernando Meirelles reveals that the shot in which we see Alicate, Cabeleira and Marreco through the bumper of the gas truck is a homage/spoof of the TV series Charlie's Angels (the three boys are seen holding their guns pointing to different ways).
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In order to increase the tension between Dadinho and Marreco, acting coach Fátima Toledo told teenager Renato de Souza (Marreco) to bully the kid Douglas Silva (Dadinho) for 15 days. In the scene where Marreco slaps Dadinho, Douglas Silva started crying and threatened to abandon the movie, so the angry look he gives to Marreco in the movie is real.
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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".
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The scene where the gang prays before the war was not scripted. During the shooting a young boy, who used to be on a real gang, asked director Fernando Meirelles if the group was not going to pray like they always did before any important confrontation with the enemies. Meirelles told him to lead the prayer as they shot the scene.
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The shot where we see a lot of dead bodies lying on huge blocks of concrete was recreated from an award-winning photograph taken during the drug war portrayed in the movie.
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During the sequence set in the newsroom, some crew members can be seen - including Art Director Tulé Peak (he's the older guy who grins to Buscapé).
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When we hear Buscapé (Alexandre Rodrigues) talking to Marina (Graziela Moretto) about how "he never took a hot bath", that was not scripted. Actually, that was Rodrigues and Moretto talking off camera, during a pause in the shooting, when the boy (who lived on the slums) was telling her about his life.
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The last shot of the movie, where the little boy loses his slipper and comes back to pick it, 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.
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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.
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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.
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Seu Jorge, who plays character Knockout Ned, is a samba-soul singer with cult-status in Brazil. One of his songs can be found in the City of God's movie soundtrack.
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The correct translation of the names is:
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- Buscapé = Rocket (the firecracker type)
- Zé Pequeno = Little Zé (Zé comes from José = Joseph)
- Dadinho = Little dice
- Cabeleira = Big Hair/Shaggy
- Mané Galinha = Chicken Mané (Does not imply a coward in Portuguese slang, but usually means "Womanizer") Mané is short for Manuel
- Alicate = Pliers
- Barbantinho = Little string
- Cabeção = Big Head
- Filé-com-Fritas = Steak with fries
- Paraíba = Paraíba is the name of a state in the north east of Brazil, the state where the character comes from
In the English-subtitled version, Mané Galinha is instead called "Knockout Ned". Mané Galinha means "Chicken Manuel" in Portuguese. Because his real name is Manuel and he stole chickens. But in the US, "chicken" is slang for "coward". To avoid that connotation, the name Knockout Ned was created because "knockout" refers to how handsome he was as compared to the "ugly" Little Zé.
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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.
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The film was not actually shot in Cidade de Deus slum as it was too dangerous. It was shot in a neighbouring, less dangerous area.
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Fernando Meirelles wanted the cast to be made 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. But while Meirelles was working on the script, Nachtergaele suddenly became a huge star in Brazil after starring in the hit film A Dog's Will. 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. Nachtergaele moved to the real Cidade de Deus where most of the cast lived and lived there for three months to prepare for the role.
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The character of Buscapé was based on a composite of Paulo Lins, the author of the book "Cidade de Deus", and a childhood friend of his who dreamed of becoming a photographer.
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The views in black and white taken from satellite, about the new territories controlled by Zé Pequeno, show the real City of God.
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Voted movie of the year by Empire magazine in 2003. (It would be 6 years before another foreign language film tops the list: Let the Right One In.)
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On the American version of the DVD, the guns are all removed from the hands of the group standing on the DVD cover. They are pointing imaginary guns.
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Spoilers
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 on, some clients complained to the management that they heard gunshots in some of the other rooms.
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One day, during a pause of 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.
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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.
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The subjective take in which we see Buscapé's point of view, after Zé Pequeno (Leandro Firmino da Hora) 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.
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