City of Men

- Season 1

(2002)

At school the children of the favela are told how the Portuguese crown was brought to Brazil, when Napoleon attacked Portugal. Acerola conceives Napoleon as something equivalent to the local gang-leader BB in his fights with other criminal gangs in the favela. Soon the schoolboys Acerola and Laranjinha get stuck in the middle of one of these fights.

The gang-leader Deco falls in love with Acerola's sister Mirka. Because of this the social status of Acerola is changed in a twinkling. The young boy uses his new power to domineer and humiliate his former tormentors. When the love story between Mirka and Deco cracks, Acerola loses his protection and is in big trouble.

The postman cannot deliver the post in the favela, because the streets have no names and the houses no numbers. The ruling gangsters order Acerola to invent names for all the streets and put up signboards in all corners. But when the police gets hold of Acerola's handwritten map, the gangsters are in great danger.

Laranjinha, whose birth name is Uólace, is living on the streets while João Victor lives in a high-rise. As their paths cross, both teens worry about their own futures.