Film Reviews

Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite)

• Rating:
• Director: Jose Padhila.
• Starring: Wagner Moura, Caio Junquiera, Andre Ramiro, Maria Ribeiro.
• Details: Brazil / 115mins (18).

"When honest cops go into the slums, bad things happen." After three movies and a TV series (City Of God, City Of Men, Favelas Rising) taken from a favelas gangster's point of view, it was only a matter of time before the cops have their say. In Elite Squad, they're determined to make the most of it; not only do they have their say but they'll give you a rifle butt to the groin for laughs too. It's 1997 and Rio's BOPE (Special Police Operation Battalion) are a tough, uncompromising police unit charged with cleaning up the slums in time for the Pope's visit. Heading up this elite squad is the no-nonsense Captain Nascimento (Moura). With a tough gig negotiating gun-toting drug dealers, corrupt cops and panic attacks over his impending fatherhood, Nascimento is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He'll be granted promotion, which will get him off the streets after the visit, but only if he can find a successor worthy of the position. In step two raw recruits - Neto (Junquiera) and Andre (Ramiro) - but will they have the heart to pass the gruelling training course? Grittier than City Of Men but lacking the originality of City Of God, Elite Squad is a welcome but needless addition to what is now becoming the Brazilian slum sub genre.

Review by Gavin Burke