Before moving to Rio de Janeiro, I explicitly advised friends and loved ones not to watch the widely successful movies Cidade de Deus and Tropa de Elite.
In 2000 he moved to Rio de Janeiro to prepare to make City of God, having been drawn to the project after reading the book Cidade de Deus, written by Paulo Lins.
In September 2011, the pacified Cidade de Deus favela, widely known for the movie that bears its name, became the first neighborhood in the city of Rio de Janeiro with a community bank.
But there is still a long way to go: the only time Barack Obama saw a sizeable number of Afro-Brazilians was on his visit to the Cidade de Deus slum, made famous by the movie City of God.