Rio de Janeiro in 1997. Police officer Nascimento is in charge of an elite commando unit. He finds himself in a quandary when he is assigned to lead a rapid response force that has been given the task, on barest of pretexts, of maintaining law and order in a favela ruled by drug dealers. Unable to come up with a suitable successor for his job, he has no choice but to carry out the assignment himself. The fact that his wife Rosane is about to give birth to their first child and pleads with him every day to stop putting his life on the line, doesn’t make things any easier. This double burden weighing on Nascimento only makes him feel the pressure more keenly. In the midst of his predicament he receives an emergency call. There has been a shoot-out at a party in another favela and Nascimento and his group rush to the aid of two young policemen. The two young cops are so impressed by the professional way in which Nascimento’s squad help them to break free, that the pair – Neto and Matias – immediately sign up as trainees in the elite commando. The commitment of these two young men is soon on everyone’s lips. One of them is well-known for his daring, and the other for his intelligence. If Nascimento could only manage to forge these two qualities in one person then he would have found his successor.
José Padilha is an award-winning Brazilian director of the Brazilian films Bus 174,Tropa de Elite – which earned him a Golden Bear award at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival – and Tropa de Elite 2.
The films form part of a trilogy, looking at the influence of media, police and, finally, polticians.
His film Secrets of the Tribe premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim. This documentary explores the allegations, first brought to light in the book Darkness in El Dorado, that anthropologists studying the Yanomami Indians in the 1960s and 70s engaged in bizarre and inappropriate interactions with the tribe, including sexual and medical violations. On March 02, 2011, it was announced that José Padilha will direct the new RoboCop film. —Wikipedia
It is funny to read some of the comments... Adjectives like "pro-cop", "fascist", "nazi". Really? In Brazil we dont even have a significant right-wing party in decades. When Padilha made Bus 174 he was called... socialist. A simple research will reveal to you that Brazil is one of the most violent countries in the world, so why would you think that the story of the film is a "propaganda"? Sadly, its not.
Initially, this seems like a film that takes a look at an exclusive Brazilian police force geared to thwart the drug lords. And immediately after the gripping opening, we are carted in a dizzying journey down to the favelas where drug gangs are lording over the marginalized, and then to corrupt police departments, and up to the rest houses of the rich and famous who are also drug dealers and users themselves.
If I was going to judge a film only by my moral standpoint I’d say this is another pamphlet that tries to convince people that the only answer to deal with crime is to turn into a neo-fascist robot… read review
Creo que el primer error está en considerar esta película como otro ejemplo de cine social. Sencillamente el tono de la misma lo impide. No quiero decir que la película no toque algunos problemas que… read review
An unapologetic take on the police-favela dynamics, and the story of an inevitable transformation.
How much does Tropa de Elite owe to Cidade de Deus? Much. But where Meirelles paints a saga… read review
This is the kind of film that you can’t really just see and let go. Its portrayal of the hardest part of Brazilian reality is haunting, especially for a Mexican like myself, who’s living in the middle… read review