Elite Squad: The Enemy Within

After the first film, José Padilha negotiated a Globo television series; he wanted full control, refused to sign, and it collapsed; ideas from it carried into this feature. Shooting began on 25 January 2010 with 80 serving officers as extras. On 1 February it worked at Morro Dona Marta with two helicopters and heavy weapons, and neighbouring residents took it for a real firefight. Denied permission to photograph inside Bangu 1 prison, art director Tiago Marques worked from notes while 40 people spent 2 months building a 500 square metre jail; those scenes were shot across the four days of the 2010 carnival. Because the first film leaked before release, the script was filed with the agency under a false title, printed in red ink to frustrate photocopying, and cut in an apartment with no internet. On 7 December 2010 it passed 10,736,995 admissions, the most watched Brazilian film in the country. Brazil submitted it for the foreign language Oscar and it missed the shortlist; at the national Grande Prêmio it won more awards than any other film, among them best picture, director and actor. A good fit if you want corruption traced through vote counting, not firefights. Not for a viewer troubled by sustained close range violence, which the film does not spare.