Friday, July 25, 2008

Tropa de Elite

Movie name: Tropa de Elite
Year of release: 2007
Director: Jose Padilha
Stars: Wagner Moura, Caio Junqueira, Andre Ramiro, Maria Ribeiro, Fernanda Machado, Milhem Cortaz, Marcelo Valle
Genre: Action, Drama
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6

Synopsis:"Tropa de Elite" won the award for best film at the Berlin Film Festival of 2008. It follows the story of an elite squad in the "favelas" of Brazil (the slums that surround the big cities there). We are introduced to the main character, Capitao Nascimento, one of the officers of this elite squad, trying to find a replacement for himself, since he and his wife have a baby coming up and his job is one of the riskiest and most dangerous in the force. The film follows the daily life of the police officers, as they deal with the criminal side of the city but also with the corruption and how everything works within the police organization. It is a disenchanted look at the reality behind the beaches and tropical paradise that Brazil shows in the postcards, much like what Fernando Meirelles did with "City of God". It's gritty, well directed and the performers are all uniformly good.

0 comments: