Elite Squad - Harrowing Movie from Jose Padilha
New Brazilian Film Follows in Footsteps of City of God
Aug 15, 2008
Elite Squad is the new film from Jose Padilha, the award winning director of documentary Bus 174. Whereas Bus 174 was based on an actual event, the badly handled hostage situation of a bus taken by an armed bandit, Elite Squad is a fictional account. Nevertheless, the script, based on the self styled 'Elite Squad' who police the favelas in Rio de Janeiro, is grounded in realism. Based on the controversial book – Elite Squad – written by sociologist Luiz Eduardo Soares and former BOPE (Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais, or Special Police Operations Battalion) police captains Andre Batista and Rodrigo Pimental, the film has already become one of the most popular Brazilian movies ever made.
Violence and Crime in the Brazilian Elite Squad
Ostensibly, the film is about the preparations being made in order to welcome the pope on a visit to Rio de Janeiro. Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura) is put in charge of clearing the nearby slum of drug dealers, but the job is badly timed for him as his wife is pregnant and he is eager step down. A possible replacement emerges when Nascimento meets new recruits Neto and Matias, but the choice of which one it should be is not straightforward. Life on the streets is brutal and chaotic, and the moral ambiguities of a police force who torture and kill poses serious questions about trust, responsibility and who has the right to cleanse the favelas of undesirables – if, indeed, such a right should belong to anyone.
City of God vs Elite Squad
Like Fernando Meirelles' City Of God, released in 2002, Padilha's film has concentrated the eyes of the world on the horror of life in the Brazilian slums. The two films have an obvious common ground, but where they differ is in focus. City of God has Rocket, the wannabe photographer and symbol of ultimate hope. With Elite Squad, director Padilha has explained that what he wanted to do was show the “social process that makes a violent cop” (quote taken from The Observer Film Quarterly, July 2008). The film has divided critics, some of whom claim that the police brutality is glorified, and the attention it has brought to Brazil does more harm than good for residents of the favelas. Padilha believes it is a story that needs to be told.
Elite Squad is on general release in the UK from August 8th and in America from September 19th.
Further reading: Check out other Latin American films here in the Foreign Film section.
 |
