Elite Squad
Short description
Elite Squad is set in Rio de Janeiro in 1997, shortly before a papal visit. Captain Nascimento serves in BOPE, an elite police unit that operates in the city's favelas. He wants to step back from frontline work before his first child is born and needs to find a replacement. Two childhood friends, Neto and Matias, join the military police intending to fight crime honestly, but they run into corruption and incompetence. A violent episode in a favela pushes them toward BOPE. The film follows Nascimento's search for a successor and the two recruits' paths, while drug dealers in the slums remain a threat as the visit approaches. It is fictional but draws on real accounts of the unit.
José Padilha directed, and he wrote the screenplay with Bráulio Mantovani and Rodrigo Pimentel. It was his first narrative feature and the start of a series he continued with Elite Squad: The Enemy Within. Wagner Moura plays Nascimento, with André Ramiro as Matias, Caio Junqueira as Neto, and supporting turns from Milhem Cortaz, Fernanda Machado and Maria Ribeiro.
Made for about 4 million USD, the film took roughly 13 million USD worldwide. On IMDb it holds 8 out of 10 from around 119,000 votes, and on TMDB 8.1 out of 10 from a much smaller base, while the critics' rating stands at 5 out of 10 from 36 reviews, well below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The characters of André Matias and Roberto Nascimento are based on the scriptwriters André Batista and Rodrigo Pimentel. Both Batista and Pimentel previously served in the Special Police Operations Battalion – an elite unit of the military police in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
- Initially, it was decided that Kayo Junqueira was too old for the role of Neto. He then offered himself for the role of Captain Fabiu, but did not stop trying to convince the filmmakers that he could very well play Neto. He eventually succeeded, and Millen Cortas was approved for the role of Captain.
- During filming, someone stole a van containing 90 firearms (30 of which were real, and the rest were replicas). Police conducted an operation in one of the favelas (slums) in Copacabana, but it could only be called a success with reservations.
- The initial script envisioned Captain Nascimento as a secondary character, with Neto and Andre Mathias as the main protagonists. It was only after filming was completed that director José Padilha and screenwriter Braulio Mantovani realized how much they enjoyed Wagner Moura’s performance, after which they re-edited the entire film and made Nascimento the main character.
- Andre Ramiru was suggested for an audition by a friend, despite having never acted in a film before. As a result, the friend himself did not pass the audition, while Ramiru landed one of the leading roles.
- Roberto Nascimento owes his name to Sandro Nascimento, a criminal who died shortly after being arrested for hijacking a bus.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
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