(TROPA DE ELITE, José Padilha, Brazil 2007, 115 min., Portuguese/subtitles)

In 1997, prior to a visit from the Pope in Rio de Janeiro, a top-flight police squad is assembled to root out the violent drug dealers in the slum where His Holiness will be lodging. This riveting, kinetically charged action epic becomes a sort-of flipside to City of God by offering the point-of-view of law enforcement, in particular, a burnt-out captain with a pregnant wife who wants out of the dangerous job and two young and idealistic new recruits who encounter corruption at every turn. Elite Squad won the Silver Bear, the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival.