City of God
1
5.1
- noun
:
Ciudad de Dios
- The movie City of God gives a powerful insight into life in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.
- City of God the movie
Examples
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In City of God, the director skillfully portrays the struggles of youth in a challenging environment.
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Then we jumped into Augustine for most of the month and did stuff coming from City of God and from on free choice of the will.
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Then it's Augustine, some stuff from the City of God that I didn't get to before, and then we'll do some Epictetus.
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The Wrestler, Matchpoint, Crash, The Barbarian Invasions, 21 Grams, City of God, Yi Yi, etc.
Blog text (4) -
Many critics consider City of God to be one of the most impactful Brazilian films ever made.
Surface Forms
Morphology
City + of + God
As a proper-name title referring to a specific 2002 Brazilian film, the MWE's intended meaning (the film about life in Rio's favelas) cannot be derived from the literal constituents 'city', 'of', and 'God'. A B1 learner who knows the words would at best infer a literal or theological sense ('a city belonging to God') and would not predict the film reference, so the expression is not transparent.
Etymology
City of God is the title of a famous 2002 film that was named after a real Rio neighborhood called 'City of God'. The film uses that name to show the contrast between the idea of a holy city and the violence in the favelas, so City of God also refers to that movie about life in Rio's poor neighborhoods.