UK Premiere / Action Movie
Showing @ Cameo 1, Sat 18 June @ 22:00 & Mon 20 June @ 22:15
José Padilha / Brazil / 2010 / 117 mins
Don’t let its title fool you, this isn’t a Hollywood-esque homage in which the characters battle against their self-conflicting moral identities. I mean, it is that, but it’s rather a deconstruction of an entirely corrupt political system (sound familiar?) Set between the weaving favelas and government offices of modern day Rio, the film follows Lt.Col. Roberto Nascimento (Wagner Moura) and his ascension from the merciless Special Police Operations Battalion to the corrupt echelons of ruling government. Thrown fifteen years after the end of Padilha’s first instalment, the city’s corruption bleeds into the police force and state offices, leaving Nascimento to discover the malfeasance hidden in the walls of his own office and facing the task of cleaning it up virtually alone.
With its quickstep narrative and fiery dialogue, reminiscent of the torrid City of God, the film soaks itself in overlapping themes fighting for the spotlight. Wrestling against cliché, the heavily dramatised action sequences with gun battles and armoured trucks provide the required thrills associated with the genre, but are undercut by the probed political terrorism unfolding between the city streets. Shady deals, state-ordered executions and drug traffic dominance only scratch the surface of the level of corruption engulfing the city, and with hints of The Wire about it, the film could almost be a fictionalised left-wing propaganda movie. And unlike traditional action films, you actually care what happens to Padilha’s characters; in many ways it’s a joy to see an action film choreographed so astutely and profoundly. Yet what really stings is Padilha’s ability to tear apart the frail, political bubbles which are housed by the cowardly, fraudulent ruling classes – a strength which befits the nature of the explosively realised content.