Manda bala Send a bullet

This highly stylized and subtly informative expose of labyrinthine corruption, decadence, and social inequality in contemporary Brazil fittingly earned both the Grand Jury Prize and the Excellence in Cinematography Award at last year's Sundance Film Festival. Recalling the powerfully inventive documentaries of Errol Morris (Thin Blue Line, Fog of War), for whom he worked for several years, first-time director Kohn similarly (but by no means imitatively) uses the production values characteristic of fictional films to intensify the exploration of a complex nonfictional theme whose initially incongruous parts are interwoven into a gradually unifying and revelatory whole. Among the many such parts is a host of interviews with kidnap victims and kidnappers, law enforcement officers, an innovative plastic surgeon who specializes in restoring the severed ears of kidnap victims, and an attorney general. What emerges is an unforgettable and searing portrait of systemic inequality from both ends of a society sharply polarized between a wealthy minority and a bitterly disenfranchised underclass. Extra features include the director's commentary. Highly recommended for all libraries.--Robert A. Sica, Eastern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Richmond (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.