Elite Squad: The Enemy Within

The slums of Rio de Janeiro are considered one of the most dangerous places on Earth, and as head of Rio’s BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion), Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura, reprising his career-defining role) has seen his share of insane situations. When a BOPE mission to quell a jail riot goes wrong in a very public way, he finds his job on the line when activists accuse him of using excessive force. But it turns out the public has had enough of the violence and drugs that plague Rio, and he’s hailed as a hero and promoted to Sub-Secretary of Intelligence. In his new post, Nascimento strengthens BOPE and brings the drug trade to its knees, but he soon comes to the sobering realization that by doing so, he’s only made things easier for the corrupt cops and dirty politicians who are truly running the game. After years in the trenches, Nascimento now finds that his new enemies are much more dangerous and, supposedly, on his side.

Less a sequel than an evolution of the original “Elite Squad,” the winner of the Golden Bear at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival, ELITE SQUAD: THE ENEMY WITHIN has wowed audiences across the globe, becoming the highest-grossing film ever in its home country of Brazil and spurring a national debate over the tactics and strength of the police and government in Rio. Now, the film comes to the U.S., undubbed and unedited, in its original international version.