SAO PAULO: A Brazilian film highlighting the violence in Rio’s notorious slums, “Elite Squad 2,” has broken national box office records, with nearly 11 million tickets sold.
The cops-and-criminals picture, which mixes explosive action with an expose of corrupt politicking, has usurped a 1976 Brazilian supernatural erotic classic, “Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands,” for the status as most-watched movie in the country’s history.
Its success coincided with a spectacular real-life operation last month by the crack police squad of its title and the Brazilian military in sweeping brutal drug gangs out of a nest of slums in Rio de Janeiro.
“Elite Squad 2″s take of 60 million dollars in the box office is almost as much as the 61 million dollars generated in Brazil by the US sci-fi blockbuster “Avatar.” It is to get its international showing next month, in the Sundance Film Festival in the US.
