Elite Squad

Elite Squad is a 2007 Brazilian crime film based on the novel Elite da Tropa by Luiz Eduardo Soares, André Batista, and Rodrigo Pimentel. Directed by José Padilha from a screenplay by Padilha, Bráulio Mantovani, and Pimentel, the film stars Wagner Moura, Caio Junqueira, and André Ramiro. In Elite Squad, Roberto Nascimento (Moura), a Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais (BOPE) captain, leads a crackdown on a series of Rio de Janeiro neighbourhoods to prepare for the 1997 state visit of Pope John Paul II. Inspired by the Military Police and their related arms, Elite Squad is the second feature and first film by Padilha, after the documentary Bus 174 (2002). Elite Squad was an overwhelming critical and commercial success, and became a cultural phenomenon in Brazil. The film won the Golden Bear at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival. Its sequel, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within, released in Brazil on October 8, 2010, holds industry records in the country for ticket sales and gross revenue. Plot Roberto Nascimento, a BOPE captain, leads an operation to secure the Turano neighbourhood before Pope John Paul II's overnight visit at the Archbishop's home near the favela. With his wife Rosane pregnant, Roberto searches for a successor at the unit before switching to a desk job. Rookie PMERJ officers and best friends André Matias and Neto Gouveia handle menial work as instructed to them by their corrupt seniors: Neto supervises the police auto mechanic shop, whilst Matias is responsible for registering and filing police complaints in a small archive office. André also attends law school, where he begins a relationship with Maria, and meets her friends Roberta and Edu; all three are members of a NGO that operates in an area ruled by drug lord Baiano. Baiano provides marijuana to Matias' friends, who sell it on campus. André also befriends Romerito, a boy who, like himself, suffers from myopia.