ELITE SQUAD
ELITE SQUAD: THE ENEMY WITHIN aka TROPA DE ELITE
Year: 2007
USA: IFC Films
UK: Revolver Entertainment (2011) Optimum Releasing (2008)
Cast: Wagner Moura, Andre Ramiro, Caio Junqueira, Milhem Cortaz, Fernanda Machado, Maria Ribeiro, Paulo Vilela, Fernanda de Freitas, Marcelo Valle, Fabio Lago, Andre Mauro,Bruno Delia, Marcelo Escorel
Director: Jose Padilha
Country: Brazil
Language: Portuguese (English subtitles)
USA: 115 mins
UK: 114 mins
USA Rated: R for strong violence, pervasive language and drug content
UK Certificate: 18 contains strong bloody violence (2011)
UK Certificate: 18 contains strong violence (2008)
USA Release Date: 19 September 2008 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 13 August 2011 (Limited Re-release)
UK Release Date: 8 August 2008 (Limited Release)
Synopsis
ELITE SQUAD is an intense and astonishing look at Rio de Janeiro's notorious favelas, the volatile slums on the edge of the city. The film is set in 1997 and presents an intimate look at the city's vast and intricate web of corruption. The story is based on the shocking true-life accounts of military police officers.
Drug trafficking militias have virtual control within the favelas while the police run their criminal enterprises outside. The elite BOPE force (State Police Special Operations Battalion) combats drug trafficking, but keeping order has its price though and their actions make it difficult to distinguish right from wrong and justice from revenge.
BOPE Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura) is facing a crisis: in addition to the pressures of fighting within war zones, the Captain must find and train his own replacement so he can escape the day to day violence and be close to his wife who is about to give birth to their first child.
Two of the force's newest recruits, Neto (Caio Junqueira) and Matias (Andre Ramiro), are childhood friends: one is quick on the trigger to maintain order and the other refuses to compromise his ideals. Together they are the perfect replacement. Alone they may not have what it takes to survive.
Directed by Jose Padilha, (BUS 174), and written by Padilha, Academy Award® nominated writer Braulio Mantovani (CITY OF GOD) and Rodrigo Pimentel, comes the controversial film ELITE SQUAD (TROPA DE ELITE). It is based on accounts from Pimentel's 19 years as a military police officer and BOPE Captain. ELITE SQUAD won the Golden Bear at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival.
