GERMANY: The violent Brazil cop drama 'Tropa de Elite' is named best film in Berlin

Record ID: 472961

  • Title: GERMANY: The violent Brazil cop drama 'Tropa de Elite' is named best film in Berlin
  • Date: 20th February 2008
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 16, 2008) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL "BERLINALE PALACE"
  • Embargoed: 6th March 2008 12:00
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  • Location: Germany
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  • Country: Germany
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  • Reuters ID: LVA7UZ73D3W0YCVJKM82IDSWJJ1J
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  • Story Text: The ultra-violent Brazilian film "The Elite Squad"

    ("Tropa De Elite") won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday 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 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 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.

    "Two years ago Jose came to me and I had a documentary, a very difficult documentary, he came to me and told me I had done the most courageous film in the whole world, and now I have to give it back. You made the most courageous film on the planet, dealing with corruption in the police, dealing with all the corruption in Brazilian society. You made it, your perseverance, your idea of bringing it to discussion," the producer Marcos Prado said as they collected the Golden Bear. "The film has already become a very big thing in Brazil, and this award gives us the strength to go forward and bring this reality to Brazil, because we want to change it. And I congratulate Jose and all our partners and sponsors and everybody who helped us. Everybody deserves it, congratulations Jose."
    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 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 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".

    "Oh wow, blimey O'Riley. He's lovely. It's just such an honour I can't tell you. I can't begin to express how I am feeling right now, my legs have gone, I'm on the edge of tears, as you can hear in my voice. But thank you to the jury and to Dieter. To be part of this extraordinary, beautiful and very special film is such an honour," Hawkins told a packed Berlinale Palast.
    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.

    "I just want to say hi to my partners in crime on this trip, and I particularly to Daniel Day Lewis, a terrific actor who makes any director look like a good director. Thank you very much for this generous award, I really appreciate it," he said as he took the award.
    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.
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