Elite Squad: The Enemy Within

Introduction

Elite Squad, following the fortunes of Brazil's BOPE, was until last year the highest grossing Brazilian film. And this was a little odd as it was both part funded by the Brazilian government and severely criticised the Brazilian police force by portraying it as extremely corrupt. Well, it's status as highest grossing film has now been usurped by a newcomer; Elite Squad: The Enemy Within - also directed by Jose Padilha. And this one is even more critical. Seems like the Brazilians just love a bit of introspection.

The events depicted take place several years after Elite Squad, with Nascimento (Wagner Moura) now promoted to Commander of BOPE. He had left them once he'd put Andre (Andre Ramiro) in as successor but then his marriage fell apart and he found himself back in uniform. Not only that, but his wife had remarried to a far left human rights activist called Fraga (Irhandir Santos) who is the bane of BOPE and has helped in turning Nascimento's young son against him.

Then things get worse. There's a riot in the High Security penitentiary in Rio De Janeiro and BOPE has been called in to quell it, but Fraga has managed to get permission to go in to negotiate with the riot leaders. Things go awry very quickly as Andre goes against Nascimento's orders and breaches the prison and kills some of the rioters, leading to public uproar led by Fraga over the killings. The Governor's first instinct is to fire the BOPE commander but unfortunately he finds that Nascimento has been elevated to the status of public hero and so has to make him the Secretary of Security - although Andre is sacrificed and transferred back into the police force where he started.

Nascimento and BOPE finish their mission to clear the favela's of the drug dealers but quickly realise that the power vacuum is ripe to be filled. And it is, by the corrupt police who rule the favela's in the same way and run the same criminal activities but under the pretence of the rule of law. Politicians queue up to fraternise with these 'community leaders' in order to maximise their voting potential, the communities afraid to disobey their new leaders. But Nascimento wants none of it and has a new mission, but one in which he'll ultimately need the help of Frago…

Extras

Very substantial Making Of that attempts to explain away the contradictions of the plot line of the film and the criticism of the Brazilian system that Padilha blatantly criticises.

Overall

The second, hopefully not the last, film in the Elite Squad series paints on a much broader canvas than the first and really is a massive critique of the Brazilian way of life. I have no doubts that this is an accurate portrayal of life in Rio, but I'm amazed that he was able to get this one made as well as the first. It's clear that the Brazilian people love this series and that may have helped to sway some of the politicians holding the purse strings, but I'm staggered with the kind of latitude that he's been given.

Elite Squad: The Enemy Within is much more a documentary style than the first one, and needs to be as the range of the narrative is much broader, dealing with the entire political system rather than just focussing on the police force. It works really well and this gritty powerful story is one of the best films I've seen this year. It pulls no punches and is a film that the likes of Scorcese would be proud of making.

Superb film and recommended without hesitation.