Growing up in a culture dictated by violence and run by street gangs, teenagers Acerola and Laranjinha have become as close as brothers. With their eighteenth birthdays fast approaching, Laranjinha sets out to find the father he never met while Acerola struggles to raise his own young son, but, when they suddenly find themselves on opposite sides of a gang war, the lifelong friends are forced to confront a shocking secret from their shared past. Minus the original directors, this long awaited sequel to ‘City of God' returns to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, and while still an impressive and nicely performed drama, this fails to achieve the giddy heights and acclaim of the film that spawned it.