José Padilha
Truppa Di Elite

"This film is about Carioca hypocrisy. That's where the violence comes from" - José Padilha.

In the dispassionate and carefree wait for the sequel to this big film, "Elite Squad" 2 in pre-production, I am about to review the first chapter of this "urban shoot'em up", inspired by the best-seller "Elite da Tropa" by Luiz Eduardo Soares, which almost landed Brazilian director José Padilha in hot water, after he decided to expose, through the film in question, the upper echelons of the Brazilian police, making them very angry.

We quote a line from its main character, the commander of the Alpha squad of BOPE, Captain Roberto "Beto" Nascimento (Wagner Moura), which goes more or less like this: "he who helps a trafficker is on par with a trafficker", a phrase that leaves no room for misunderstandings, undeniably empirical, a remnant of an extreme social condition, Matteo Garrone's Gomorrah in comparison is an amusement park.

Try taking the various Italian neighborhoods on the verge of social degradation, multiply them by 700, which is the number of favelas in Rio de Janeiro, almost all controlled by drug traffickers, and you might "perhaps" justify the disenchanted view of the BOPE troops (Special Police Operations Battalion), an equivalent of our Italian NOCS, who operate daily against Carioca crime.

"Beto" Nascimento, will be our psychopomp within a Freudian thanatos whose journey knows no happy endings, whose social reality, shot by Padilha with a documentary flair, is beyond any civic reach and evaluations in the light of principles consecrating human dignity.

Corrupt policemen and drug traffickers are inseparably linked components in a strong social degradation now backed by a State Law that finds its additions and connections in the bureaucracies of a subjugated, insidious and complacent ruling class, ready to manipulate its control bodies, themselves addicted and corrupt, to their own guaranteeing interests... we are in Brazil, not in Italy...

BOPE, known for its "operational modes" to all its social strata, almost segregated from the normal Police, conducts a personal urban guerrilla, brutal and ruthless fight against drug traffickers and everything related, even the policemen themselves, while Nascimento's narrative voice marks with calm clarity the escalation of pure brutality and ruthlessness towards the ghetto residents even if they are women.
Anyone even minimally suspected of collusion with drug traffickers is therefore subjected to torture in order to extract useful information for their capture.

"Beto" Nascimento operates daily in the favelas with his team, risking his life, like all operators he has been subjected to harsh training, in order to operate in extreme conditions, he has seen children die, kids overdose, narcos spreading their gangrene, becoming stronger and stronger.
Therefore, it is important not to distinguish between police officers, hypocritical radical chic, dealers, lookouts, and buyers, all are victims of the corrupt and perverse system, the dealer could be any teenager, die tomorrow of overdose, become a narco, a boss, or a killer who kills for a dose years later, no resolution in sight.
But Beto is like everyone a man, Padilha highlights his human aspects, on the occasion of his son's birth he starts fearing for his loved ones which turns into moments of panic during operations, the remorse for deaths left to narcos on free witnesses/traitors.
Thus, a ray of light opens for him in the difficult period experienced, a possible replacement that will materialize in the choice of one of the two young officers Neto (Caio Junqueira) and Matias (André Ramiro) who in their ascending trajectories before power, will be reluctant witnesses to the illegal behaviors of the police they were part of.
The advent of the Pope's visit to Rio, is the opportunity for Nascimento, coordinator of the security operations of the morro Turano neighborhood, the most dangerous in Rio, to test the validity of the two recruits.
From here the film will be enriched by the vicissitudes of the two young boys whose figure will be highlighted and which will find for Matias confirmation with public opinion up to the disruptive finale.-

The Film is the winner of the Golden Bear at the 58th edition of the Berlin film festival.

In the production team stands out Daniel Rezende, nominated for an Oscar for the editing of "City of God".

"Drugs will always be susceptible to a great dichotomy: opening your mind or ruining your life... " - ILM_