Tropa de Elite 2 – O Inimigo Agora É Outro (2010)

Directed by: Jose Padilha | 116 minutes | action, drama, thriller, crime | Actors: Wagner Moura, Irandhir Santos, André Ramiro, Milhem Cortaz, Maria Ribeiro, Seu Jorge, Sandro Rocha, Tainá Müller, André Mattos, Pedro Van-Held, Adriano Garib, Julio Adrião, Emílio Orciollo Neto, Rodrigo Candelot, Charles Fricks, Fabrício Boliveira, Marcello Goncalves, Pierre Santos, William Vita, André Santinho, Guilherme Belem

Rio de Janeiro, city of beach and war in the slums. After a stroboscopic title sequence that almost blows the light out of your eyes, ‘Tropa de Elite 2′ ends up in the metropolis’ most notorious prison. A murderous uprising breaks out. The first push is given by a corrupt member of BOPE, a paramilitary Brazilian police unit. BOPE’s emblem: a skull through which a blood-stained knife has been thrust. BOPE itself crushes the rebellion, led by the complacent authoritarian Colonel Roberto Nascimento (Wagner Moura). What follows is an aggressively styled action film in which executions and blackened skulls merge with strong structure and a balanced story. That combination is striking, in this genre, but not entirely surprising. Controversial predecessor ‘Tropa de Elite’, also by director José Padilha, even won the Golden Bear at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival. Steven Seagal, the action hero who likes to give ‘depth’ to his battle, would sign blindly for it. But he’s not invited to this party.

Colonel Nascimento is promoted after the uprising. His cynical view of the internal war between BOPE and the gangs shows his character: for him the endless fight is “a therapy, to de-stress”. He de-stresses in his new position by restoring the decrepit BOPE unit to its former glory. His belief in ‘an eye for an eye’ is still rock solid at that time, as he makes clear in the voice-over. As narrator, Nascimento is emphatically present throughout the film. And although his transformation carries the film, the real protagonist here is ‘the System’: an invisible, untouchable social fabric of which politicians, cops, judges, media figures, citizens, farmers, country people and gangsters form the fibers. In ‘Tropa de Elite 2’ each of them gets their (replaceable) role. In fact, the System is calling the shots. It deals in everything that makes money and power, from drugs to cable television. And Nascimento may think he can clean up Rio with BOPE, but even dealing with crime is in the hands of the System no more than election rhetoric. In a sense, Nascimento tells us, every resident of Rio is part of it. You are used by it, or you use it, there is no escape from it anyway.

‘Trope de Elite 2’ is a film of extremes, about a world full of extremes. At lightning speed, the story shoots from shady corridors in the favelas to the backrooms of politicians, and from a packed lecture hall to the motor yacht of an asshole law enforcement officer. Nevertheless, the film manages to give the characters shown an aura of flesh and blood. For example, in a few striking scenes the dilemma of Nacimento’s son Rafa (Pedro Van-Held) is worked out. Rafa lives with his mother Rosane (Maria Ribeiro) with her new boyfriend Fraga (Irandhir Santos). As a left-wing academic and human rights activist, Fraga is the complete opposite of hard-handed Nascimento – and Rafa is in between. You can’t bring conflict any more, and yet it works.

As in Nascimento’s conviction the System is more than the people who shape it, this film is more than a sum of events. Form here reflects content. Flashy cuts, blazing guitars, ice-cold sunglasses: Padilha pulls out all the stops to tempt you to adore what ‘Tropa de Elite 2’ offers you. Including the violence. But ‘Tropa de Elite 2’ distinguishes itself from other action films, by showing that you can sometimes not solve a complicated problem in a simple way (read: with a few punches). And that simple solutions can actually make the problem worse. In other words, the day-to-day reality presented by this film would drive Steven Seagal’s characters to despair. Fortunately, then, that Roberto Nascimento is still there. A man who is willing to take losses in the fight for his own right.