GERMANY: 'Tropa de Elite' director reacts to winning best film at the 58th Berlin film Festival

Record ID: 470705

  • Title: GERMANY: 'Tropa de Elite' director reacts to winning best film at the 58th Berlin film Festival
  • Date: 20th February 2008
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 16, 2008) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF "TROPE DE ELITE" DIRECTOR JOSE PADILHA AND HIS PRODUCER AND CO-PRODUCERS WITH GOLDEN BEAR FOR BEST FILM AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) JOSE PADILHA, DIRECTOR OF TROPA DE ELITE, SAYING "It was a very hard movie to do so it's great for me to get this. It's kind of like, whoa. And not only for me, for all th
  • Embargoed: 6th March 2008 12:00
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  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVADLQD1PA8DQFSB37SD2FGNC4B7
  • Story Text: Ultra-violent Brazilian film "The Elite Squad"

    ("Tropa De Elite") won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday (February 16´) in what is likely to be a controversial decision by the jury.
    The movie, already a hit in Brazil, portrays corruption, violence and murder within a crack squad of Rio policemen battling armed drug dealers in the city slums.
    The drama, awarded the coveted Golden Bear for best film, divided the critics, and at home a group of officers sought to have it blocked for denigrating the police force.
    Some reviews praised it as a powerful portrayal of the moral compromises police accept in order to survive and do their job, but others said it glorified their often brutal methods. One called it a "recruitment film for fascist thugs".
    At the festival director Jose Padilha said he approached the cycle of violence neither from the political left nor right, and added that legalising drugs was the only way to break it.
    In the film, police and drug warlords commit torture and executions, including burning a teenager alive in a ring of tyres, while the rich are lambasted for financing narcotics crime and even NGOs working in the slums are criticised.
    The ceremony brings to a close 11 days of screenings, red carpet premieres, parties and deal making at Europe's first major film festival of the year.
    The main competition line-up included 21 entries, but nearly 400 movies were showcased in all sections of the festival. The runner up award went to "Standard Operating Procedure", a documentary by U.S. director Errol Morris exploring the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison.
    Morris wanted his picture to show that the abuse was not the work of a few errant individuals.
    The best actor award went to Iran's Reza Naji in "The Song of Sparrows", a film about how a man's rural idyll is threatened by material temptations thrown in his path in the big city.
    Britain's Sally Hawkins was named best actress, as the critics had predicted, for her portrayal of the infectiously optimistic school teacher Poppy in "Happy-Go-Lucky".
    Paul Thomas Anderson of the United States won the best director Silver Bear for "There Will Be Blood", the pre-awards favourite to take the golden bear. The movie, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as a greedy and determined oil prospector in early 20th century America, has won many prizes already and has been nominated for eight Oscars.
    As always, several out-of-competition films made the biggest headlines, including a world premiere for Martin Scorsese's "Shine a Light", a concert film of the Rolling Stones.
    Madonna also presented her directorial debut "Filth & Wisdom", which several critics said was as poor as her worst performances in front of the camera.
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