KBS film festival opens with gunfire

"The Elite Squad," directed by Jose Padilha, is a controversial action film from Brazil that won this year's Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
Set in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, it follows the ruthless exploits of the city's paramilitary police group BOPE, formed to rid the streets of crippling drug crimes.

Calling itself the "Elite Squad," BOPE is led by the battle hardened Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura) a jaded veteran who seeks a successor, desperately looking for an escape from the daily bloodshed as he faces the birth of his first child.

The film was unveiled in an exclusive showing at the CINUS Myeongdong on Aug. 22, as part of the opening press screening for the KBS Premiere Festival which opens to the public tomorrow.

A film festival run by the Korean Broadcasting System, it annually showcases some of the most acclaimed international films that have not been released before in Korea.

"The Elite Squad" opens to the sound of pounding bass of a crowded nightclub and a gruff voice-over narration by Nascimento, the film's protagonist. The audience is immediately immersed in the sleepless, corrupted streets of Rio, a warzone for the gangs of drug dealers and the police force. The cops face an uphill battle, outnumbered by the legions of traffickers as well as being on the verge of succumbing to their own corruption. The opening shootout establishes the film's uncompromising nihilism. People are mercilessly slaughtered and tortured as the audience is given a gritty first hand portrait of the anarchy in Brazil. Much of the film is shot in cinema verite style, increasing the exhilaration and shock-value with its documentary feel. This is further heightened by the fact that besides Braulio Mantovani, the screenwriter of City of God, the film is co-written by Rodrigo Pimentel, a former member of BOPE.

Much of "the Elite Squad" is moulded around a solid backbone of realism. Padilha creates several problematic juxtapositions because the film's stylized action sequences often end up glorifying violence and justifying torture.

As the body count rises, so does the sadistic volume of heavy rock music played in the background. Also, Nascimento believes in himself too much to be an effective anti-hero, wearing the skull and dagger badge with too much pride to go hand-in-hand with the nihilism.

The film also suffers from poor structure as mid-way through the audience are thrown off track by a somewhat pointless sequence depicting the various forms of ruthless militant training the budding applicants of BOPE go through.

"The Elite Squad" is an exhilarating, gritty action spectacle if not always coherent, and some of the filmmaker's unconvincing artistic decisions heavily erode the film of its claims of being true-to-fact. As a film that displays social awareness yet simultaneously eschews moral values, it will polarize the audience.

The KBS premier festival is in its fourth year running, and other than "the Elite Squad" there are nine other internationally renowned films on offer, set to screen in 10 nationwide CINUS multiplexes; "Scorpion" (France, 2007) "Hunting Party" (U.S, 2007), "48 Hours A Day" (France, 2007), "One Night with the King" (U.S. 2006), "Bluff" (2007, Columbia), "The Black Balloon" (Austria, 2008).

The most notable inclusion is "An Asian Corridor in Heaven," a full feature length version of KBS's award-winning documentary series on the ancient tea road "Chamagodo." As one of the first "multimedia film festivals" it also intends to have the films running on DMB (digital multimedia broadcasting) as well as on the internet and on cellphones. The KBS Premiere Festival hits all CINUS cinemas nationwide from tomorrow to Sept 3.

Source : http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/

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