But as most good crime dramas go, there are moments of intense realism, as well as some serious ethical questions laid at the feet of the characters on screen.
Which is why almost 20 years after its initial release, the film still sticks with us to this day.
In the ranks of film about organized crime, Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund’s City of God is a movie that has earned its place among the heavy hitters of the genre.
Weaving a tale of almost two decades of Brazilian crime, City of God also tells the story of how the Cidade de Deus neighborhood was developing from the 1960s straight through to the 1980s.