Elite Squad

Elite Squad
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJosé Padilha
Written byBráulio Mantovani
José Padilha
Rodrigo Pimentel
Based onElite da Tropa
by André Batista
Luiz Eduardo Soares
Rodrigo Pimentel
Produced byJosé Padilha
Marcos Prado
StarringWagner Moura
Caio Junqueira
André Ramiro
CinematographyLula Carvalho
Edited byDaniel Rezende
Music byPedro Bromfman
Production
company
Zazen Produções
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release dates
August 17, 2007 (2007-08-17) (Rio de Janeiro) (premiere)[1]
  • October 5, 2007 (2007-10-05)
Running time
115 minutes
CountryBrazil
LanguagePortuguese
BudgetR$ 11 million (US$ 8 million)
Box officeR$ 28 million (US$ 14.1 million)[2]

Elite Squad (Portuguese: Tropa de Elite, pronounced [ˈtɾɔpɐ dʒi eˈlitʃi] lit.'"Elite Corps"') is a 2007 Brazilian crime film based on the novel Elite da Tropa by Luiz Eduardo Soares, André Batista, and Rodrigo Pimentel. Directed by José Padilha (from a screenplay by Padilha, Bráulio Mantovani, and Pimentel), the film stars Wagner Moura, Caio Junqueira, and André Ramiro, and tells the story of Roberto Nascimento (Moura), a captain with the Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais, or BOPE ("special police operations battalion"), who leads a police crackdown on a series of Rio de Janeiro favelas in-preparation for the Brazilian state visit of Pope John Paul II.

Inspired by the Military Police of Rio, and their related arms, Elite Squad is the second feature and first film by Padilha, after the documentary Bus 174 (2002).

Elite Squad was a box office hit in Brazil and became a cultural phenomenon there. The film won the Golden Bear at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival, but received mixed reviews. Its sequel, Elite Squad: The Enemy Within, was released in Brazil on October 8, 2010, and holds industry records in the country for high ticket sales and gross revenue.

In 2015, the Brazilian Film Critics Association aka Abraccine voted Elite Squad the 30th greatest Brazilian film of all time, in its list of the 100 best Brazilian films.[3]

  1. ^ "Tropa de Elite Release Info". IMDb. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
  2. ^ "Elite Squad (2008)". Box Office Mojo.
  3. ^ "Abraccine organiza ranking dos 100 melhores filmes brasileiros". Abraccine - Associação Brasileira de Críticos de Cinema (in Portuguese). 27 November 2015. Retrieved 10 August 2024.