Iconic Film 'City of God' Gets a Spin-Off 20 Years Later with 'Buscapé' from VMLY&R Brazil

This Monday, the short film 'Buscapé' will be launched, the result of an unprecedented partnership between Vivo and Motorola and created by VMLY&R Brasil. Produced by O2 Films and directed by Fred Luz, the short film comes exactly 20 years after the release of the award-winning 'City of God', by director Fernando Meirelles.

The project was born not only to honour the 20 years of history of the movie 'City of God', but also to launch the new Motorola Edge 30 Ultra with the power of Vivo's 5G connection. The friendship between Buscapé and Barbantinho is the leading thread of this new story, and the actors Alexandre Rodrigues and Edson Oliveira once again bring their iconic characters to life.

In the spin-off, Buscapé returns to Cidade de Deus, now as a professional photojournalist, to cover a special event within the community, but changes his plans when he stumbles upon a discovery that will start an investigation, using Vivo's 5G connection and the new edge as his allies.

"I am pleased to see this story being revisited. This time by the hands of Fred Luz, who put the focus on what is positive in the community, its culture, and not on the violence," comments Fernando Meirelles, executive producer of the short film. 

"Our pretension, our desire, is that there be this 'glue', this relationship between 'City of God' and 'Buscapé', but also building a proprietary identity for the short film, it can't just be a remake of 'City of God' now, but what changes from then to now, how we look at this work 20 years later and how we interpret the choices. A very intense dive, of a lot of learning and listening," reveals Fred Luz. 

"Having technology as the main theme of this story is a way of highlighting its transforming role and paying great tribute to the most iconic film in Brazilian cinema," says Marina Daineze, director of brand and communication at Vivo.

"This project rescues a tradition of the Vivo brand of creating content that pays tribute to great landmarks of Brazilian culture. Now, 20 years after the release of the greatest Brazilian film of all time, the union of Vivo and Motorola enables the reunion of the main characters involved in the original film. A historical celebration, for a historical film," comments Rafael Pitanguy, VMLY&R Brazil CCO and deputy global CCO of VMLY&R network.

"Smartphones are now an essential part of consumers' lives. With technology, content creation becomes more and more viable. That is why we put the smartphone into action. Without having a professional camera, the Buscapé character uses his cell phone for journalistic investigation, with all the resources in the palm of his hand to generate quality content," said Andrea Brandi, head of Branding at Motorola.

The production of the short included important names from the original feature film, such as César Charlone, who participated in the pre-production and initial meetings of the new project, visiting locations with Fred Luz. Paulo Lins, author of the book that the film is based on, also took part in the creation of 'Buscapé'. 

Fred Luz, director of the film, commented: "The first word that comes to my mind is challenge! When Fernando invited me, I thought that it was a delight, it was a gift, an invitation to be part of, to develop a project like this. It is also a very big responsibility, and I think that if you relate to the dramaturgy of City of God 20 years later and make a short film that has the pretension of being a sequence, a spin-off, of this film, it deserves a very intense dive, and this dive was mostly about knowing how to listen, knowing how to understand. Because one of the great merits of this project, in my opinion, was to bring in several professionals who developed the language, the identity, who built the film City of God back then, together with Fernando."