Edited by Sarah Cooper
sarah.cooper@
emap.com
DIARY
on a violent police unit fighting drug dealers in Rio’s favelas, Elite Squad 2 broadens the struggle, as the former inductee, Nascimento (Wagner Moura) is given a desk job and takes on local militias and government corruption. Moura says: “For me, Nasci-
mento is a typical character from Greek tragedy — he’s spent his whole life fighting what he thought was a noble war, but now he understands he’s just a puppet.” Padilha says the combination of
Elite Squad 2: already the biggest release of all time in Latin America Double trouble
BY JEREMY KAY Jose Padilha listens to the story of how a visibly shaken young man emerged from a recent Sundance screening of Elite Squad 2 and vowed to return home to Brazil and fight corruption. “To push people to do things or
make them inclined to do things is a reaction I want out of my film,” says the Brazilian director, ahead of the crime thriller’s European premiere in the Panorama section tonight. There’s no doubt the former
documentary maker has made people take notice. Elite Squad 2
SHOOTINGSTAR PROFILE
Over the festival, Screen is profiling the 10 young actors selected for EFP’s Shooting Stars
Jose Padilha
took $70m in Brazil, where it opened last year, establishing a blockbuster follow-up to his 2008 Golden Bear-winning Elite Squad, to rank as the biggest release of all time in Latin America. Whereas the first film centred
dramatic structure and reality (“When a guy beats up a police- men, it reminds a Brazilian of his life”) made for a winning formula in Brazil. Additionally, Elite Squad was
seen by an estimated 10 to 11 mil- lion on pirate DVD. This time, the film-makers took no chances. No digital master was produced, and two armed guards protect Blu-ray materials which are being assem- bled in Germany. Another big difference has been
the lack of pressure from the authorities. The police and gov- ernment instructed Padilha to drop Elite Squad, but he ignored them. “When we announced Elite Squad 2 I had the lawyers lined up, but no politician said anything publicly,” Padilha says. “I got a few threatening e-mails. Nobody tried to stop us because the first film was so popular they’d lose votes.” » See review, p20
Grand Despair of a 40-hour coach trip
NIK XHELILAJ (ALBANIA) Credits The Sorrow Of Mrs Schneider (2008), The Albanian (2010) First time in Berlin? I stayed here for over a month last year, but it’s my first Berlinale. Plans for the festival? I’ll definitely have ‘ein grosses Weissbier’ at Luzia bar on Oranienstrasse. I’m looking forward to meeting with the director and crew of my movie The Albanian. As the first Albanian actor selected for the Shooting Stars, I’m very enthusiastic about everything. What’s next? I’m hoping to catch a project in Berlin… until then I’ll be working on a theatre production at the national theatre of Albania.
BYMARTIN BLANEY It may be difficult to believe, but the chaos caused by the volcanic ash cloud last April is the reason why a double-decker bus fes- tooned with film posters is parked across from the EFM this year. Berlin producers Titus Kreyen-
berg of Unafilm and Roshanak Behesht Nedjad of Flying Moon were among the participants at an April 2010 German-Turkish co- production meeting who were stranded in Istanbul when the air- port closed. Thanks to his Turkish partners
on the competition film Our Grand Despair, Kreyenberg was able to charter a coach for the journey back to Berlin, which lasted more than 40 hours. “Remarkably, nobody talked
about business during the whole trip, though many of the key peo-
n 12 Screen International in Berlin February 11, 2011 Unafilm and Flying Moon relive their coach trip
ple for a film’s financing were on board,” recalls Kreyenberg. After coming together informally
at last year’s Cannes, the members of this exclusive party — which included Medienboard Berlin- Brandenburg’s Kirsten Niehuus, Arte France’s Michel Reilhac, Ellis Driessen of Fortissimo and pro- ducer Karl Baumgartner — will be having a reunion cocktail in the bus to rekindle the communal spirit. What’s more, Unafilm and Fly-
ing Moon will be using the bus to promote their festival films.
The Devil’s Double
Today
Sunny, high 2°
Tomorrow
Light snow, high 0°
One On One LEE TAMAHORI, THEDEVIL’SDOUBLE
The director talks about the film’s genesis, the casting of Dominic Cooper as Saddam Hussein’s son and the advantages of shooting on digital
How did you come to the film? Recently I found out it was initially a Danny Boyle project. We have the same agent. He brought it to me and I then met Dutch financiers, Canal Plus and other backers back in 2006. But it went through various financing problems, fell apart and then was picked up by producer Paul Breuls, which was great because no-one else had the courage to run with it. It’s a type of freeform screenplay — you need to interpret it in order to film it.
So you had more leeway to experiment with the material? Yes, it’s half way between writing and another form. Michael Thomas has written great stuff before, but he wanted to break out on this and go a little mad. The script is not written in a conventional manner, which frightened off people.
Why was Dominic Cooper right for the part? I wanted to go with someone who was on the way up, someone trained at a top school, someone whose expertise I could count on. On a technical level, I needed someone who was able to jump flawlessly between two characters at the drop of a hat and enjoy the process. In some ways, I
wanted to do the picture in Arabic but that would have been a really hard sell. I said to Dominic, “You have to pull this off or we’re sunk,” and of course, he did.
What interested you about this period? I was more interested in this story than anything to do with the Gulf War. The five or six movies I’ve seen which deal with the conflict tend to be the same story, and I have a personal and political view that is diametrically opposed to that story. But that didn’t interfere with this piece. This is about a criminal regime and gangsters. Paul and I discussed this. And we didn’t want to get caught up in all the other Iraq War films.
How was your first experience shooting a feature on the Red One camera? I like new technology. I’m pretty much over film. A lot of DPs tried to talk me out of it, so I had to find the right one. I’m not going back. It’s a post-production camera, so everything you watch on the dailies looks grim, but I don’t care because I know it will all be fixed in post; it’s part of a manipulative editorial process that I love.
Andreas Wiseman
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