The last hours of the life of Sandro do Nascimento, 22 years old, "the Bus 174 hijacker", were followed by millions of people through TV worldwide. His burial was accompanied by only one person - his adoptive mother.
Enticed by the documentary Bus 174 by José Padilha, director Bruno Barreto built a fictional account to tell the story of meeting a teenage orphan and a woman obsessed by the memory of her son. The meeting of two people adrift, which ended with the death of a young teacher and Sandro, leaving orphaned again that mother of her son.
set in 1997, in Rio de Janeiro, The Elite Squad follows the lives and exploits of a BOPE captain named Nascimento and his two potential heirs-in-command, Neto Gouveia and André Matias, rising from the ranks of general PMERJ (the state military police) to BOPE (later it is revealed that Nascimento wants to leave the force because his wife is pregnant with his first child).
While Neto Gouveia is a quick-tempered, tougher man, André Matias refuses to compromise his ideals of peace and equality. The latter is also a student of Law at a university in Rio, where his upper class friends are unaware of his job as a policeman, and are clearly shown as "spoiled" kids that tend to see the police as a repressive unit.
Preceding the visit of Pope John Paul II to Rio, the plot unfolds and we are introduced to the day-to-day drug busting operations inside Rio's favelas, ruled by well-armed and powerful drug lords, led by the Brazilian elite unit, BOPE, and the corruption that affects part of the PMERJ.
he film shows in parallel two periods in the life of Raimundo Nonato (João Miguel): one showing his successful career as cook, the other as prisoner in a cell with about ten other prisoners. Gradually the film makes clear that the prison period is later.
His period as cook starts with a situation where he arrives by bus in a big city, without a place to sleep and without even money for food. He eats chicken snacks in a cafetaria, and has to wash the dishes to pay for it. He gets a job without getting wages, just food and lodging, even though the snacks he cooks are so good that it attracts more customers. He has free sex with prostitute Íria obsessed with eating, in exchange for food. He is very jealous. In a bar where Íria works as an erotic dancer, after drinking alcohol without being accustomed to that, he starts a fight with a customer, and is thrown out. Íria takes care of him. Nonato gets a better job in an Italian restaurant, where he learns more of cooking from his boss Giovanni. One day he discovers that Giovanni has sex with Íria. He is very upset, first drinks a bottle of wine, then kills both. He cuts off a slice of Íria's behind, and cooks it for his meal.
In the prison cell there is a power hierarchy with Bujiú (Babu Santana) at the top. The food is poor, and Nonato is assigned to cook better food. The inmates are usually quite satisfied with it, and Nonato rises in the hierarchy. However, Bujiú rejects Gorgonzola, raw meat, and cooked ants. Ingredients are usually bought through guards; the ants were collected from the cell. Top-criminal Etcetera (Paulo Miklos) arrives, who is highly esteemed among the inmates, and Bujiú decides that a great meal should be cooked to please him. The main prison kitchen is arranged for the preparation; this is expensive, but according to Bujiú a good investment. Nonato poisons Bujiú and becomes the leader of the cell (Etcetera has his own cell).
Stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in Mexican border town
Mexican Narcotics officer Ramon Miguel 'Mike' Vargas has to interrupt his honeymoon on the Mexican-US border when an American building contractor is killed after someone places a bomb in his car. He's killed on the US side of the border but it's clear that the bomb was planted on the Mexican side. As a result, Vargas delays his return to Mexico City where he has been mounting a case against the Grandi family crime and narcotics syndicate. Police Captain Hank Quinlan is in charge on the US side and he soon has a suspect, a Mexican named Manolo Sanchez. Vargas is soon onto Quinlan and his Sergeant, Pete Menzies, when he catches them planting evidence to convict Sanchez. With his new American wife, Susie, safely tucked away in a hotel on the US side of the border - or so he thinks - he starts to review Quinlan's earlier cases. While concentrating on the corrupt policeman however, the Grandis have their own plans for Vargas and they start with his wife Susie.
