Filmed between 1970 and 1971, this daring short documentary only got the chance to see the light of day in the early 2000's when director Sérgio Muniz
got the courage to gather up all the material filmed, spread everywhere and then spliced back in the best possible way thanks to the fear of censorship among
other things while making a devastating denounce on the death squads commanded by chief of police Sérgio Paranhos Fleury while dealing with criminals and
oppositors from the military regime.
Part documentary and part filmed theatre with many talents performing works of Brecht and Peter Weiss adapted to match with the 1970's political reality, the film follows the news on how police authorities were more interesting in torturing and killing criminals rather than performing their own duty under the law and not even the higher authorities in the Police Comission could stop their actions for a while, since members of such work were being closely followed and threatned by those crooked violent cops and their bosses.
I don't know how Muniz did it back in the 1970's while capturing most of what's shown here but he made it without facing any kind of repercussion. Not only the staging of actors recreating trials, tortures and brutalities, all as if developing plays that would never be performed, but also the many times he and other camera news captured the dead bodies of executed criminals, in the most horrific ways with the whole crowd of cops just exposing them. In one particular moment, two dead guys are shown facing each other with their faces close to one another, and the printed news makes a mention of both guys dying on a homosexual pact - that's the level how news managed to get ridiculous - when in fact it was a criminal act of two guys who defied the cops, died and then the bodies were staged to create a sensational news. And bear in mind that at a couple of moments there's presentation of facts where some of the victims from the police were innocent and just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
And in between those repeated sequences there are several clips of frightening Fleury either walking around or a newspaper interview where he presents his point of view on death squads as if nothing's happening and everything's under control while the Police Comission is following their acts; and there's countless of news clips about security in São Paulo; and some heavy use of irony with the military regime slogans of "Brazil: Love it or Leave it", patriotic songs of the period along with images of tough the living conditions were harsh for those living in poverty and while crime was on the rise against that background.
One can trace a wildly vivid paralel of situations of the early 1960's and think through beyond the typical Communism threat when in fact the coup was only a way to make afluent classes mantain their wealth while exploiting lower classes and getting rid off through systemic policies through racism, police brutality or just keep the poor away from them, as the rich enjoyed the fake numbers of social development and richness from the government. We've felt the hit when those gates were opened with the return of democracy a decade later and it was hard to recover. If ever the damage control was enough. 8/10.
Part documentary and part filmed theatre with many talents performing works of Brecht and Peter Weiss adapted to match with the 1970's political reality, the film follows the news on how police authorities were more interesting in torturing and killing criminals rather than performing their own duty under the law and not even the higher authorities in the Police Comission could stop their actions for a while, since members of such work were being closely followed and threatned by those crooked violent cops and their bosses.
I don't know how Muniz did it back in the 1970's while capturing most of what's shown here but he made it without facing any kind of repercussion. Not only the staging of actors recreating trials, tortures and brutalities, all as if developing plays that would never be performed, but also the many times he and other camera news captured the dead bodies of executed criminals, in the most horrific ways with the whole crowd of cops just exposing them. In one particular moment, two dead guys are shown facing each other with their faces close to one another, and the printed news makes a mention of both guys dying on a homosexual pact - that's the level how news managed to get ridiculous - when in fact it was a criminal act of two guys who defied the cops, died and then the bodies were staged to create a sensational news. And bear in mind that at a couple of moments there's presentation of facts where some of the victims from the police were innocent and just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
And in between those repeated sequences there are several clips of frightening Fleury either walking around or a newspaper interview where he presents his point of view on death squads as if nothing's happening and everything's under control while the Police Comission is following their acts; and there's countless of news clips about security in São Paulo; and some heavy use of irony with the military regime slogans of "Brazil: Love it or Leave it", patriotic songs of the period along with images of tough the living conditions were harsh for those living in poverty and while crime was on the rise against that background.
One can trace a wildly vivid paralel of situations of the early 1960's and think through beyond the typical Communism threat when in fact the coup was only a way to make afluent classes mantain their wealth while exploiting lower classes and getting rid off through systemic policies through racism, police brutality or just keep the poor away from them, as the rich enjoyed the fake numbers of social development and richness from the government. We've felt the hit when those gates were opened with the return of democracy a decade later and it was hard to recover. If ever the damage control was enough. 8/10.