Brazil: Controversy over film before its release

A feature film that claims to depict the true stories of one of Brazil’s elite police units has become a hit and garnered controversy despite not being officially released.

“Tropa de Elite” (“Elite Squad”) was directed by Jose Padilha who was also behind the lens of the critically acclaimed documentary “Bus 174.” In “Tropa de Elite” Padilha tries to blame many different groups- from corrupt cops to inept social groups- for exacerbating the problems in the favelas. It is this mentality of a “game with no winners” that has placed Padilha on the hot seat:

“My hope is that people will watch this and say, 'Hell, we have to change these rules.' We hope to generate a debate," Padilha told Reuters before the premiere….Padilha wants them to see that something is wrong with the system, where underpaid officers "must choose between becoming corrupt, neglectful or going to war.”

The controversy will not go away anytime soon since thousands of illegal copies of “Tropa de Elite” have been sold. In an odd twist, a judge denied a request by officers to block the official premiere after she viewed a pirated copy of the movie.

Sources- The Latin Americanist, Reuters, Associated Press

Image- globo.com (Scene from “Tropa de Elite”)