Tropa de Elite
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Tropa de Elite |
| Country of production | Brazil |
| original language | Portuguese |
| Publishing year | 2007 |
| length | 118 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK no youth approval |
| Rod | |
| Director | José Padilha |
| script | Bráulio Mantovani |
| production | José Padilha, Marcos Prado |
| music | Pedro Bromfman |
| camera | Lula Carvalho |
| cut | Daniel Rezende |
| occupation | |
| |
| chronology | |
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Successor → |
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Tropa de Elite [ ˈtrɔpa dʒi eˈlitʃi ] is a Brazilian feature film by the director José Padilha . The film focuses on the work of the Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais (BOPE), a special unit of the military police in Rio de Janeiro . It is based on the book Elite da Tropa by the Brazilian sociologist Luiz Eduardo Soares and two former members of the BOPE, André Batista and Rodrigo Pimentel. The film received several awards in Brazil and Portugal. The theme music by the Brazilian rock group Tihuana reached platinum status and has been downloaded millions of times from the Internet.
On February 16, 2008, the film was awarded the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlinale .
action
Capitão Nascimento is the leader of a task force of the BOPE, the elite force of the military police in Rio de Janeiro . On the occasion of the Pope's visit to Brazil in 1997, his unit was commissioned to temporarily calm the favelas of Rio. Nascimento suffers from panic attacks and often survives the brutal missions only with the help of tranquilizers. His wife is expecting a child and urges him to quit his dangerous job. He asks for his release, which is only granted to him if he personally chooses a successor. The childhood friends Neto and Matias, new police officers out of conviction, suffer from the corruption in their units and apply for the elite troop. They have to prove their perseverance and honesty in an extremely tough selection process. When Matias, who is studying law alongside his police service at the university, poses a threat to the drug trafficking in upper-class children at the university, which is controlled by gangs in a favela, the gang leader Baiano wants to get him out of the way. The action fails, however, and in place of Matias his friend Neto is shot and later dies in the hospital. After that, the task force has only one goal: to bring Baiano down. Finally he is tracked down by the commando and shot. Nascimento then leaves it to Matias to kill Baiano with a shotgun. He avenges his friend and Nascimento has found his worthy successor in his eyes.
background
The film was already widely distributed by black copies before its Brazilian theatrical release on October 12, 2007 ; around twelve million people saw the film in advance. The film spread very quickly on the Brazilian black markets and on the Internet because three employees of the production company "Drei Marc", who were supposed to provide the film with English subtitles, published the film. Nevertheless, it also became a commercial success with 2.5 million moviegoers in its country of production.
The ambiguous portrayal of police violence, drug trafficking and torture are hotly debated both in Brazil and internationally.
production
According to his own statements, Padilha spoke to active and former police officers and police psychiatrists during the two years of research prior to the production. He initially intended to make a documentary. However, since his interlocutors did not want to speak in front of the camera, this turned out to be impractical. Since it would also have been too dangerous to film operations of the units live, he decided to make a film with a documentary feel. The author Rodrigo Pimentel was an officer in the military police for twelve years and served as a captain in the BOPE for another seven years.
As part of the preparations for the shooting, the actors were subjected to tough training in order to make them appear as authentic as possible in their roles. “They grind us as if we would wear the uniforms for life like them. And when we stormed a favela in perfect position, every elbow was in the right place, ”says Wagner Moura. The days of filming in the city's favelas were risky. “Standing in the favelas disguised as a policeman was tough,” Junqueira recalls. “We always had to wear jackets that said 'film crew' as soon as the cameras weren't running.” Despite all the precautionary measures, the crew's car with the guns was stolen.
Reviews
"The film masterfully balances narrative and (pseudo) documentation, is exciting and originally told and does not please anyone - it keeps away from ideological points of view and moves close to reality."
“In spite of all its stylistic rigor, 'Tropa de Elite' lags far behind Fernando Meirelle's favela epic ' City of God '. […] Where Mereilles, in his ingenious mixture of music video aesthetics and quasi-documentary, repeatedly keeps analytical distance to the characters and their politics, Padilhas makes the logic of his heroes the logic of his narrative. "
“For an hour, 'Tropa' moves in this danger zone between exploitation cinema and political complaint - captivates, repels, irritates. Then the film slips away from its director. "
“From the beginning, Lula Carvalho's shaky handheld camera draws the viewer into the chaos of the favelas. [...] You can find that virtuoso and intense. Or rough and mannered. 'Tropa de elite - Elite Squad' is not a film of nuances. Black or white, good or bad - there is no room for subtleties here. Nevertheless, in 2008 he won the Berlin Golden Bear. That is also irritating. "
“As a cultural virus, the film - it won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale 2008 - paved the way for Bolsonarism. For the first time since the democratization of speech, he normalized a neo-fascist discourse. A few months after the premiere, the MP Flávio Bolsonaro (son of the current president) demanded that the symbol of the Bope special unit depicted in the film become part of the cultural heritage of Rio de Janeiro. It shows a skull with two crossed pistols. Ten years later his father appeared in police barracks during the election campaign and shouted the slogan of the elite troops: "Skull!" (...) At that time I wrote that the film looked like a motivational video for the Bope. It was a work that disguised itself as an indictment, but in reality celebrated the subject of its criticism. "
Publications
The film was released in Great Britain in 2008 under the title Elite Squad on DVD and Blu-ray Disc with a running time of 111 and 115 minutes respectively. In the USA, a DVD with region code 1 and a running time of 115 minutes was released under the same title that year . These Anglo-Saxon versions have been given English subtitles.
Awards
In 2008 the film received the Golden Bear as best film at the Berlinale , and it was also recognized as best film at the Hola Lisboa Festival. At the Grand Prix of Brazilian Film (Grande Prêmio Vivo do Cinema Brasileiro), José Padilha was honored as best director, Wagner Moura as best actor, Milhem Cortaz for best supporting role, Lula Carvalho for camera work, Daniel Rezende for best editing and many more .
continuation
With Elite Squad - In the Swamp of Corruption (original title Tropa de Elite 2 , subtitle: pt. O Inimigo Agora É Outro , "Now the enemy is different") came a sequel in Brazil on October 8, 2010 in the cinemas. In February 2011 the film was shown in the Panorama program at the Berlinale. The film takes place exactly 13 years after the first part and was largely positively received by both critics and audiences.
Web links
- Official website of the film Tropa de Elite (Portuguese)
- Elite Squad in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Film review on kino-zeit.de
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ See the Portuguese Wikipedia
- ↑ Golden Bear for "Tropa de Elite" . In: FAZ.NET , February 16, 2008
- ↑ Peter Uehling: There is war in the favelas . In: Berliner Zeitung , August 6, 2009
- ↑ My film is not fascistoid . In: Der Tagesspiegel , February 12, 2008, accessed on February 17, 2008
- ↑ Benedikt Sarreiter: In conversation: José Padilha - "You put me under massive pressure" . ( Memento of the original from August 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. sueddeutsche.de, August 10, 2009
- ↑ a b Behind the scenes: Tropa de Elite - Controversial depictions of violence .
- ↑ Torture, coke and bribe . In: Berliner Zeitung , February 12, 2008
- ↑ Christian Buß : Cop-Thriller Tropa de Elite - Here the torturer gets right . Spiegel Online , August 4, 2009
- ↑ Sebastian Hanke: Who fights with the devil . tagesspiegel.de, August 4, 2009
- ↑ Michael Ranze: Irritating pictures from the slums of Rio . Abendblatt.de, August 6, 2009
- ↑ JP Cuenca: racism-fascism-militarism-a-glimpse-into-the-dark-soul- brazil tagesspiegel.de June 5, 2020
- ↑ Awards of the Berlinale 2008 , accessed on April 29, 2017.
