Known in English as
City of God,
Cidade de Deus is the eponymous name of a 1997 semi-autobiographical novel by
Paulo Lins, about three young men and their lives of petty crime during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s in the favela where Lins grew up. An English translation by Alison Entrekin was published in 2006. The novel was filmed by
Fernando Meirelles (director of
The Constant Gardener and
Blindness) in 2002 under the same title
City of God, with most of the cast from real-life
favelas and in some cases, from Cidade de Deus itself. After filming, the producers set up help groups promising to help those involved to build more promising futures. In 2004, the film received four Academy Award nominations for cinematography, for director Meirelles, for editing and for adapted screenplay by Mantovani. In 2005,
Time chose it as one of the 100 greatest films of all time. The tagline "If you run, the beast catches; if you stay, the beast eats", is analogous to the English aphorism "Damned if you do, damned if you don't". ==Local currency==