Elite Squad

Elite Squad (Portuguese: Tropa de Elite, pronounced [ˈtɾɔpɐ dʒi eˈlitʃi] lit. '"Elite Corps"') 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, and tells the story of Roberto Nascimento (Moura), a captain in the Battalion of Special Police Operations who leads a police crackdown on a series of Rio de Janeiro favelas in-preparation for the 1997 Brazilian state visit of Pope John Paul II. Inspired by the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro, and their related arms, Elite Squad is Padilha's second film, after the documentary Bus 174 (2002), and his first narrative feature. The film was a box office hit in Brazil and became a cultural phenomenon there. Elite Squad won the Golden Bear at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival, but received mixed critical reviews. Its sequel, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within, was released in Brazil on October 8, 2010, and holds industry records in the country for high ticket sales and gross revenue. In 2015, the Brazilian Film Critics Association aka Abraccine voted Elite Squad the 30th greatest Brazilian film of all time, in its list of the 100 best Brazilian films.