City of God (Cidade de Deus in Portuguese) is a crime drama adapted from the novel of the same name. The characters and story line are based around true events of organized crime in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro in the later 1960s to early 1980s. The movie follows the lives of two boys living in the neighborhood who have very different ideals.
The main character is Rocket, who wants to become a photographer to escape from the city’s violence. The film features flashbacks of Rocket’s life to show the hardships and fear he has faced. Another central character is Li’l Dice, later Li’l Zé, who is part of a gang along with Rocket’s brother, Goose. Li’l Dice kills Goose near the beginning of the movie during a robbery turned massacre carried out by gang.
Li’l Zé and Rocket do not meet again until several years later when Rocket has joined a group of hippies and Li’l Zé has taken advantage of the high level of crime that keeps the city on edge to become a drug dealer. By this time, he has eliminated all his rivals and established a drug empire in the city, temporarily quelling the violence.
El personaje principal es Rocket, quien quiere convertirse en fotógrafo para escapar de la violencia que hay en la ciudad. La película presenta escenas retrospectivas de la vida de Rocket sobre las dificultades y el miedo que ha tenido que enfrentar. Otro personaje central es Li’l Dice, quien luego será Lil’ Zé; él forma parte de una pandilla, junto a Goose, el hermano de Rocket. Casi al principio de la película, Li’l Dice mata a Goose durante un robo de la pandilla que se convirtió en masacre.
Lil’ Zé y Rocket no se vuelven a ver hasta varios años después, cuando Rocket se ha unido a un grupo de hippies y Lil’ Zé, aprovechando el alto nivel de crimen que mantiene a la ciudad en vilo, se convierte en traficante de drogas. Para entonces, ha eliminado a todos sus rivales y establecido un imperio de la droga en la ciudad, lo que hace que temporalmente no haya violencia.
SPANISH LESSON
“aprovechando el alto nivel de crimen que mantiene a la ciudad en vilo…” (“Taking advantage of the high level of crime that keeps the city on edge…”) The expression ‘en vilo’ means ‘on tenterhooks, on edge.’ The word ‘vilo’ comes from the latin filum which means being on the edge, or on something very unstable.
Example: “La espera del diagnóstico del doctor lo tenía en vilo”. (“Waiting for the doctor’s diagnosis had him on tenterhooks.”)