Brazil director hopes film will highlight corruption

EXPOSING CORRUPTION

Rio's Governor Anthony Garotinho tried to pressure Padilha not to make a film about botched bus hijacker Sandro Rosa do Nascimento, 21, who died of asphyxiation after being taken into custody, with assertions he was killed by the police.

The film received an Amnesty Award in 2003.

Pimentel, who spent a month in jail for speaking to journalists about the "Bus 174" incident against the wishes of his commanding officers, said "Elite Squad" also showed the real nature of the police force.

The film has several scenes where police officers, frustrated by their jobs and personal lives, repeatedly torture drug traffickers and engage in other unscrupulous activities.

"The police are corrupt, and they practice torture. But the police are not bad because they want to be - they are corrupt because they are commanded to be," said Pimentel who has retired from the force and works as a private security officer at a local bank.

But Padilha does not expect the film to be the catalyst for significant change in Brazil.

"Life is not that easy," he said. "But maybe all the newspaper articles, all the films, all the documentaries, all the interviews on television, everything taken together - they will help move people towards change. It's kind of like a little part of a big effort."