Fernando Meirelles’ City of God transcends the typical gangster film dynamic. All of the gangsters, or “hoods” as they are referred to in this film, are no older than late teens or early twenties. Seen through the eyes of a young teenager attempting to become a photographer in the hoods of Rio de Janeiro, the film concentrates on the emergence, rise, war, and collapse of the infamous hood Li’l Zé. For the majority of the film Li’l Zé stands as the smartest and most powerful hood in the slums. This is pervasive not only in his dominance, but also during Li’l Zé’s climb to the top. One of the most significant scenes of this film is the transformation of Li’l Dice into Li’l Zé. Early in the film Li’l Dice stands look-out at the motel hold-up, but the viewer remains uninformed what happened to him until about twenty minutes later in the film when Li’l Zé’s story is revealed. These two points of the film are separated by the conclusion of the story of the Tender Trio. For this essay I will examine the filmmaking significance of splitting the introduction and conclusion of this scene by over twenty minutes. The first portion of this sequence begins with Li’l Dice as a young child of no more than ten years old giving a brilliant criminal idea to the Tender Trio. Li’l Dice is then told against his desire that he is not allowed to take part in the plan, but instead must stand guard and shoot out a window if the police show up as to warn Clipper, Shaggy and Goose. The shot of Clipper stealthily stealing from a sleeping couple is that last image viewers see before the fire of a gun and the sound of a breaking window. From this shot on no one knows what happened to Li’l Dice, that is, until his story is told in full by Rocket. The closure to this sequence is not given until upwards of half an hour after it began. It begins with a shot from behind Rocket and his friend, Blacky, as Li’l Dice (now Li’l Zé) and his gang flood into Blacky’s apartment. After a small exchange, the camera stops on a close-up shot of Li’l Zé’s face. Along with this still shot is a line of text which reads “The story of Li’l Zé”. At this point a flashback begins where we are finally shown the motel sequence from Li’l Zé’s point of view. Moments later, the sequence is consumed with shots from the perspective of those being killed by Li’l Zé. These shots not only give the viewer the dramatic effect of being shot at, but also allow the viewers to examine the feelings of happiness and pleasure expressed by Li’l Zé. Although there are many aspects of this memorable scene that are thought provoking, I think none stand out more than the fact that the sequence maintains no linear order. Mierelles prominently exemplifies this by a break of almost thirty minutes between when the murders occur and when he reveals to the viewers what happened. This break between telling the Tender Trio’s story of the motel incident and Li’l Zé’s story is simply because the beginning of the film is structured as a few continuous narratives. The film begins with the story of the Tender Trio. For this reason, viewers remain uninformed of Li’l Zé’s story until the entire narrative on the Tender Trio concluded. This specific sequence is comprised of two separate scenes. The first scene, while giving all information pertaining to the deterioration of the Tender Trio, raises questions about Li’l Zé. The scene contains sounds of gunfire and a window breaking, but includes no visuals. As a viewer, it caused question as to why no sirens or police cars were never heard or seen. Even more simplistically; where could Li’l Zé have gone and if he was even the one who shot the window. By not answering any of these questions to both viewers and the Tender Trio themselves, Meirelles easily designed their collapse. Suspense, although not in the most stereotypically frightening way, plays a significant role in City of God. A primary example of that suspense permeates throughout the first scene of this sequence. The mystery of Li’l Zé disappearing while the police were searching for the culprits of the motel murders was something that could not be overlooked. Uninformed viewers are forced to question and worry about Li’l Zé. Framing the sequence in two separate scenes allows for this suspense and mystery to remain, and perhaps grow, in the minds of viewers for an extended period of time. Propelling this uncertainty about Li’l Zé to the forefront of the minds of viewers allows for there to be a time lapse between the two scenes without anyone forgetting the significance of the reappearance of Li’l Zé. The latter portion of this sequence examines the life of Li’l Zé. It scans through his rise ever since the moment the Tender Trio left him to stand guard at the motel all the way to his slum boss status when he walks into Blacky’s apartment. In just a matter of minutes, this scene shows the transformation of Li’l Zé from a young kid, unable to attain any power, to one of the smartest and most powerful hoods the City of God has to offer. His transformation begins as he stands outside the motel and states, “They’re having all the fun, and not me?” before shooting the window to get the Tender Trio to leave the motel. We then see the pleasure expressed by Li’l Zé as he goes through his killing spree. The shots of him killing in the motel are framed with a close-up on the face of a young Li’l Zé with only a black door frame and hallway behind him. This idea of darkness becomes a recurring symbol we see when it comes to Li’l Zé and his new life. The main consequence for this scene of the sequence, the fact that Li’l Zé began his rise to the top of the hood hierarchy, is conveyed through his sinister laughter in front of the black backdrop. This emphasizes the transformation of Li’l Zé’s life and personality; he literally walks away from all other people and into the darkness of the hallway, while figuratively transforming his life into one of darkness, crime, and corruption. He does not wait more than another minute before going to the lobby and gunning down everyone who had been previously tied up. The filmmaking technique exemplified by splitting the motel murder sequence into two scenes is one that, while watching, causes questioning. In hindsight, when examining this split sequence, the reasoning becomes a little less cloudy; it provides our introduction to all of the ways that Li’l Zé ruins lives throughout the film. He wrongfully imposes himself into the lives of others without their consent. It is evident in this split sequence as we are shown the result of his shooting the window; his actions cause the Tender Trio crumbles to pieces and even gets Shaggy killed. This area between the two portions of the sequence is filled with the first taste of the results of the actions of Li’l Zé. In City of God, Li’l Zé spends his whole life thriving to become the most successful, powerful and admired boss in the slums. This obsession perhaps fulfills his semiconscious struggle to replace the emptiness he maintained when it came to relationships. From the moment the first scene ends and the second scene of this sequence begins, Li’l Zé has lost all relationships, with the exception of Benny, of which he was a part. From that point on, Li’l Zé had to be in control of any relationship he formed. For this reason he struggled in all large, uncontrollable social settings. This appeared most prominently in the social settings attended by both Li’l Zé and Benny. Mierelles portrays this struggle by utilizing alternating shots of Benny and Li’l Zé. We see Benny in a shot at the dance party as the center of attention and friendly with everyone. This shot is immediately followed by a darker, bleaker shot of Li’l Zé walking around the party looking for someone to interact with, but ends left with no one. This bilateral sequence struck me in a similar manner to that of the motel murder split sequence. It contains two different, split perspectives of the same event. Not only that, but, as with the motel split sequence, Li’l Zé again seems to find the darkness. The irony here remains that Li’l Zé worked his whole life raising his reputation as a hood or boss in the slums, but at this exact moment, he is nothing more than that lonely child in the dark hallway, still searching for a way to complete the life he lost as a child in that motel murder sequence.