The movie I was talking about last time, The Elite Squad, won the Golden Bear for the Best Film in the Berlin Movie Festival.

Tropa de elite
osso duro de roer
pega um pega geral
também vai pegar você*

I've been meaning to talk about this here for a few days. There's a movie premiering soon in Brazil (in Rio, next October 12), I don't know how internationally famous it is or is ever going to be. But this movie has already made history. Like, I imagine, every where else in the world, there's a place to go if you want to buy pirate movies. Usually, here, the big hits in those places are the American hits, movies that are just coming to the theatres here, or soon to come. Now, someone stole a copy of this Brazilian movie from the editing table. It made its way to the pirate market, and soon it was a big hit - so big it was leaving all the foreign movies behind. With the pirate sales and the internet downloading, it's already the most seen Brazilian movie of the year - and it hasn't been officially released yet.

What's the fuss all about? It's a violent movie. A VERY violent movie. OK, so was "City of God" and many others as well. Yes, but this one shows a side not many Brazilian movies choose to take: the main characters are police officers. The movie deals with a truth nobody really wants to deal with - police corruption - and centers in a special squad, the Elite Squad of the original title: the Special Operations Battalion, BOPE, in the Portuguese acronym. The story is told by a Bope captain who has the absolute certainty the ends justify the means - he believes himself above corruption, for he takes no money from anybody and makes no concession to petty crimes, but he fails to see torturing suspects is a form of corruption as well. The movie also shows a middle to rich cla$$ bunch of university kids, who like to blame the system for society's problems all the while hoping the cracks in the system will work for them. All that with a rhythm not usual in Brazilian movies, not to mention action scenes that for once look believable.

The discussions are endless. From the claims that it glorifies police brutality to the accusations that it undermines the institution of the police, from the ones who are outraged to see white middle cla$$ drug users blamed for drug violence, to the social workers who are outraged by the drug using social workers shown in the movie, from accusations of fascism and vigilantism to people who saw it as an argument pro-coming back to the dictatorship years 30 years ago - everybody has something to say. And that should be good.

It's a movie, not a gospel. It's a story, told by and about its characters. If it touches too deep into the wound, well then, maybe talking about it will be healthful.

My foreign friends: if you get a chance of seeing it, I think you should. I know I want to see the official version.

*(Elite squad/tough bone to chew/gets one gets everybody/will get you too)

*poofs in*

Real life 3 x 1 Me

Real life fights dirty...

But I'm not defeated yet!

*poofs out*