8 Intense Real-Life Stories Behind Famous Movies
4. City Of God
Depicting Rio de Janeiro's titular favela, the City of God, the film tells the story of boys growing up in the crime-ridden suburb and how their lives are altered by its influence. Controlled by a bustling drug trade that Lil Ze aims to take over, City of God is told from the perspective of Rocket, who wishes simply to be a photographer and is caught up in the organised crime racket as it transforms throughout the 60s to the 80s.
It's a beautifully told movie, stipulated with sadness and loss as the inhabitants of the favela try to work things out over the years. It is, however, also a true story, based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Paulo Lins, his own experience of the City of God shaping the events that play out on screen.
The favela itself was created and abandoned in the 60s, leading to a rise in crime from an ignorant and corrupt police force as shown throughout the movie, which remains largely true to reality. The filmmakers even went as far as hiring the inhabitants of the real City of God to act, setting up workshops for residents to attend to get as realistic shoot-out scenes as possible, and taking their advice on how residents would be portrayed.
Some of the dialogue scenes, like Rocket talking about never having a hot shower, were simply the actors discussing the truth of their experiences rather than scripts to.