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A lot of people must have wondered what the jury was thinking when it awarded the Golden Bear to Brazilian crime drama 'Elite Squad'. A controversial blockbuster in Brazil, José Padilha's brutal and extremely commercial saga of police corruption isn't the sort of film that usually wins the main prize at a major festival, and certainly not at Berlin. But on second thoughts, it was clear why the jury favoured 'Elite Squad': it was one of the few features in competition that you could have an argument about. It may not be entirely new in terms of film language - the manic editing, the bronzed-earth tones of the photography and the bursts of favela hip-hop are all strictly in the wake of 'The City of God' - but Padilha's film bristles with cinematic energy and narrative complexity.
Narrated by Nascimento, an embittered, bullish officer in Rio de Janeiro's black-bereted special police squadron, the film builds its multi-stranded structure around two new recruits learning the hard way that the police service is as disorderly as the city's underworld. The film plays like a Brazilian version of TV's 'The Wire' cross-bred with the 'Infernal Affairs' trilogy and elements of James Ellroy, Joseph Wambaugh and their ilk. Padilha made the hostage-crisis documentary 'Bus 174' (2002), and this film shares its investigative impulse, demonstrating how police corruption in Rio starts from the car-pool up.
Certainly 'Elite Squad' is a more complex and politically impassioned film than its militaristic meathead tendencies would suggest. Read the macho, snarling voiceover as a highly unreliable commentary and the film makes sense as a critique of Brazil's political system and of the fantasy that summary justice is the only answer. The take-no-prisoners brutality may be the reason for the film's success at the Brazilian box office - and will no doubt boost its status worldwide - but it's not a work to be taken entirely at face value.