Elite Squad  (DVD English)

An action-packed thriller that follows an elite police battalion as they clean up a drug-ridden Rio de Janeiro slum to prepare for a visit from the pope. Trained to destroy any obstacles in their path, the officers struggle to do what's right in a corrupt system and deadly environment. Director: Jose Padilha (Bus 174).

One of the most notorious releases in the history of Brazilian cinema, Jose Padilha's ELITE SQUAD exposes the rampant corruption plaguing Rio de Janeiro from a policeman's point of view. The only problem is that, in Rio, the police are as corrupt as the criminals themselves, creating a ferociously violent atmosphere. Even the BOPE squad, an elite police force called in when the regular units are out of their league, resort to tactics that border on fascist. The film's narrator, Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura), is increasingly tormented by the high-pressure situations he finds himself in on a daily basis--the city's favelas are like unmonitored war zones--and he yearns for the day when he can retire and enjoy a normal life with his pregnant wife. But he won't turn in his papers until he's able to find a suitable replacement. Two of the squad's latest recruits, Matias (Andre Ramiro) and Neto (Caio Junquiera), childhood friends with different perspectives on the corruption they encounter, might just do the trick. Nascimento tests their mettle once and for all when they are ordered to secure one of the region's most dangerous favelas. Padilha brings a documentary-like realism to ELITE SQUAD, which is as assaulting an experience as a movie can get (his first film, the riveting BUS-174, was, in fact, a documentary). Based on the book TROPA DE ELITE by Luiz Eduardo Soares, Andre Batista, and co-screenwriter Rodrigo Pimentel, Padilha's controversial glimpse into Rio's nightmarish criminal world will challenge and disturb viewers.