Cynical Cinema

Manda Bala is about corruption and kidnapping and gangs in Brazil.  It’s almost an hour and a half of twenty minutes worth of story.  In point of fact, there is more than enough information out there for a full movie, but not enough people to talk about it.  It begins on a frog farm in Brazil, which is kinf of odd.  There is a lot of talk about frogs, and the farming of said frogs.  Then it moves on to the meat of the movie.  Apparently, there was some scandal involving a frog farm.  We learn about it later.  Apparently, a very high-ranking politician, named Jader Barbalho, installed himself as the overseer of something called “Sudam”, which was a project funded by the government using taxpayer money that was designed to create business and boost the economic situation of the poor parts of Northern Brazil.  Instead of creating business and enterprise, however, Barbalho created fake businesses, over 400 of them, and stole the money.  Over two billion dollars.  And one of the fronts he used to launder the money was a frog farm.  So, there is the loose tie-in to frog farming.

The movie then moves on to kidnapping, which is the major criminal enterprise in Sao Paolo.  At least one person is kidnapped every day in Sao Paolo, because it is easier and more lucrative than robbing banks.  We meet a woman who was kidnapped and had her ear cut off, to be sent along with the ransom note.  This is the persuasion method of choice for kidnappers in Brazil.  We also meet a plastic surgeon, whose business is almost exclusively re-attaching or re-creating ears for kidnapping victims.  And we see a kidnapper cutting off an ear on a tape that he sends along with the ransom.  At least Reservoir Dogs cut away for that scene.  It really is awfully tough to watch, even though it’s grainy and of poor quality.

But what’s really tough to watch is the movie itself.  You have to turn on the subtitles, because a large portion of the film is in Spanish.  But then there are interpreters at various points in the film, which means you get the subtitles, and then you get the English translation which is the same, and the movie drags on for twice as long as is necessary.  The main problem with the film, however, is that no one wants to talk about this stuff.  Understandably, they’re scared, but what it means is that the only people with anything constructive to add are a kidnapper with a hood on his face, a couple of members of the Sao Paolo SWAT team, a kidnap victim and a frog farmer.  So there is very little information actually disseminated in the movie.

What we do learn is that kidnapping and killing are very easy for the people who live in the slums and who would never be able to live with a real job, because their neighbourhoods are so poor.  And corruption is very easy for the people in charge of the government.  This Barbalho was charged with embezzeling two billion dollars, and ended up walking.  And then getting re-elected to congress.  But that’s about all we learn, and it takes way too long.  There are certainly some impressive scenes - the scene where the leader of the SWAT team shows his bullet wounds and scars, a scene where people who have purchased bulletproof cars take a course in defensive driving - how to get away when another car is shooting at you, and a scene where a microchip inventor describes his newest invention - microchips that can be implanted under peoples’ skin so if they are kidnapped their family will know immediately. 

But in the end, this is three different stories, which are tied together clumsily, and have a sort of connection at the end of the film, when the point is made that it is just as easy to steal with a pen as it is with a gun.  And all we really get is a picture of Brazil as a really messed up place to live.  And with interview subjects who refuse to say much, or won’t be identified, there isn’t much story beyond that.  Brazil is certainly not perfect.  Neither is this documentary.