A squad of black uniform clad men surrounds the cowering dealer. A dirty green plastic bag is thrown over his head and wound tight, choking him as he struggles. Questions are roared inches from his face while he receives repeated heavy blows across the head with open palms. The dealer screams an answer. Satisfied, the squad leaves the room save for one member. He faces the kneeling dealer, pistol in hand. The barrel is levelled at the head of the man, cocked, a pull of the trigger and the chamber empties, spent round clattering on the craggy concrete room. Interrogation, judgement and execution, State Police Special Operations Battalion (BOPE) style.

Operation Holiness

Set in the months leading to the Pope’s visit of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in the July of 1997, Elite Squad is a violent, merciless and brutally honest tale from the director of the acclaimed City of God. In a city where control of the slums lies mostly in the hands of drug lords and crack dealers touting automatic rifles, order in the streets is kept in check by a fragile alliance between the corrupt Brazilian Police and the gangs. However, when the Pope announces his decision to stay near the crime-ridden slums of Turano, the BOPE, a crack team of loyal, incorruptible and hard-as­nails elite police are tasked with cleaning up the slums in 3 months. Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura), captain of the BOPE task force, narrates the story, injecting his own detailed observations of the unspoken street law albeit with generous amounts of expletives, the paradoxical farce of the justice system serving the unjust and his own concerns with selecting a successor from two idealistic young bloods, André Matias (André Ramiro) and Neto (Caio Junqueira) who have recently been accepted into the ranks of the BOPE.

Captain Nascimento is portrayed as the tough-talking veteran captain of the BOPE, also called the Skulls, a reference to their insignia emblazoned on their uniforms, a grinning skull framed by two crossed handguns and a stiletto. He delivers his own candid take on the inner workings of the regular Brazilian police, the payoffs they accept from the drug lords, lengths they go to shift legal responsibilities to each other and the illegal dealing of police weapons to gang members. He offers his own brand of black humoured witticisms about these little ironies and concludes, “Honesty isn’t part of the game”. Beneath his hard, unyielding exterior, however, the captain reveals his own personal struggles and conscience when a mother of a slain boy visits him. After capturing one of the gang lookouts, he lets the boy go free, knowing full well that the gangs will kill any of their own members when they fail in their duties.

The main bulk of the story revolves around the two potential candidates, Neto and André Matias, as Nascimento’s replacement. Neto, a hotheaded, impulsive individual, mirrors the Captain’s own personality, though is partial to taking matters into his own hands and acting before thinking. Matias, on the other hand, occupies the other end of the spectrum. The calm intellectual, he aspires to be a lawyer and studies at law school while holding on to his job as a police officer, in the hopes of upholding the law as well as its justice. He later finds out that practising law is not exactly the same as striving for a just society, he is soon forced to choose between the BOPE and his career, while Nascimento is doubtful whether Matias possessing the ruthlessness so essential in a BOPE officer.

Not Your Usual Hollywood Fare

Unlike your usual heroic cop, shoot-em’-up action flick fare, which Hollywood churns out in the hundreds, Elite Squad offers no pretence to the actions of the film’s protagonists. The members of the BOPE are ruthlessly efficient in discharging their tasks, dispatching gang members with well-placed bursts of the carbine and employing first-water police tactics against their ill disciplined opposition, often catching them by surprise.

The terror and confusion felt by the suspects is electric, especially when you first witness the vividly depicted and graphic, shock and awe techniques used by the BOPE. In a scene, the BOPE flatten themselves against a low wall, whilst ahead, a group of teenagers overseen by gun-toting gang members snort white crack cocaine, oblivious to the police’s presence. A brief exchange of hand signals pass between the members, and without hesitation, two members of the squad spring up and riddle the armed persons with lead. The rest of the team circles in screaming and hurtling expletives at the shocked gathering of teenagers, dragging one of them out and proceeding to violently assault the teenager with hard kicks and slaps.

Interrogations are equally as tense, the BOPE favouring the use of a plastic bag to briefly asphyxiate their prisoner, ripping the bag off the victim, dumping cold water on his head and proceeding to subject the person to a series of slaps and threats. A riveting drama unfolds every time you witness the raw, graphic nature of the depictions, guaranteeing that you’ll cringe at least several times in your seat.

Visceral, electric and tense, Elite Squad should definitely be on your list of flicks to catch in 2008.

UrbanWire gives Elite Squad 4.5 out of 5.0.

Release Date: 25th September 2008 (GV Cinemas)

Language: Portugese (with English Subtitles)

Rating: M18

Genre: Action/Thriller

Starring: Wagner Moura, Caio Junqueira, André Ramiro

Directed by: José Padilha

Trailer link courtesy of GV Cinemas: http://www.tropadeeliteofilme.com.br/