The first thing you hear when City of God starts is the sound of a knife being sharpened. Initially you only hear the sound however the first shots shown are multiple close up shots of knifes being sharpened. This triggers a response from the audience as the first thing that most people will think of when they hear a knife being sharpened is violence and knife crime and this is especially true if they already know what the film is about. However in this instance the knives are just being used for cooking, despite the difference between cooking and violence this knives still set the violent tone of the movie due to how the shots of them being sharpened are presented to the audience. There are very quick cuts between the knives that don't last long, the audience sees the knife being scraped against a surface and as quick as the shot started it is gone and it cuts to another knife.
The shots following the knives are also very quick and sporadic however they now contain a variety of things however the main shots are of the chicken and the people cooking by cutting carrots and skinning a chicken. There are multiple shots of the dead chicken however the whole of it is not shown and just body parts are shown, in a way this also enforces the violent themes as, while it's a chicken and not a person, there is already something dead in the very opening scene. The majority of these shots are also low shots that puts the audience with the chicken which makes everything seem bigger and more threatening and thus more confusing.
During the sporadic shots there is traditional Brazilian music playing throughout. The Brazilian music is used to establish the films setting without the need for an establishing shot to show that the film is set in the slums of Brazil.
The chicken that's still alive then attempts to run away which foreshadows the escape attempts that many people try throughout the course of the film with most of them being unsuccessful like the chicken's. One of the shots shown as the chicken escapes is a pool of blood which once again demonstrates the violence and death that will appear throughout the film.
Lil Ze is the first character that the audience get a proper look at and he is shown in a close up from a slightly low angle. The makes Lil Ze's presence threatening and imposing. He is also given the first full line of dialogue which is yelling commands at people to get the escaping chicken. The threatening presence he is given combined with how the audience has so far been somewhat aligned with the chicken, which he is now trying to catch and kill, makes the audience dislike Lil Ze.
While trying to catch the chicken, many young people including children are seen with guns which shows the state that the city is in with its violence, gangs and crime.
