Luckily the flick is starting to spread and our own Albert Lanier got to see it in Hawaii. He's got the good word on it. Enjoy!!!
MANDA BALA: FROG EAT FROG
by Albert Lanier
MANDA BALA-a new documentary about Brazil that was screened as one of the opening night films on Thursday, October 8 at the Island Independent Film Festival in Honolulu - begins with a female mannequin being shot through a glass partition and its final shot- after its credits roll- is of that same mannequin being picked up by a lab worker.
Those shots make a lot of sense since the translation of Manda Bala is "Send a Bullet." That phrase doesn't imply the subject or object targeted by the bullet. It could be mannequins or human beings.
In Brazil, its more likely human beings and the delivery of a bullet is often used as a measure of last resort by perhaps that country's biggest category of criminals: Kidnappers.
In the city of Sao Paulo alone (population:20 million), kidnappings occur every day. Logically, the wealthy and generally well-to-do are targeted. Mr. M (his psuedonym)-a successful businessman and entrepreneur- has been kidnapped in the past. Now, he rides in 3 bulletproof cars which because of the upgrades (like fitting the lining and interior of the car with ballistic steel, an alloy used in bulletproof vests) are worth about $415,000 total.
But bulletproofing your car is not enough for the super rich and just plain wealthy in Brazil. In cities like Sao Paulo, the largest fleet of privately-owned helicopters in the world is utilized to fly from building to building, city to city, region to region not just as transportation but as a safety measure.
After all, as Mr. M explains, if you are on the ground driving in a car, you never know when a kidnapper or any other type of criminal will appear out of thin air, snatch you out of your car and spirit you away.
One such kidnapper, Magrinho, later appears in the film and talks about his chosen trade. Magrinho wears a colorful ski-mask as he talks about growing up in the slums and moving up from robbing banks (which is largely ineffective because you can't make as much money per haul) to kidnapping which is far more lucrative.
Magrinho notes that kidnappers usually run surveillance on an intended subject ( in his first kidnapping, Magrinho rented an apartment near his intended target, furnished it and hired a couple to live in) before capturing the target.
Once under his thumb, the victim is usually subject to injury and harm from a kidnapper if ransom demands are not met. First a nail or two is pulled out and then-if payment is not forthcoming-a part of the ear (like the earlobe) is severed and sent to a victim's family or loved ones. Some kidnappers even slice off fingers.
Patricia was one such victim of a kidnapper. She recalls having her ear cut off by her captors while she watching Alfred Hitchock's THE BIRDS on tv. Needless to say, she never wants to see another Hitchcock film again.
Kidnapping victims often go to plastic surgeons like Dr. Juarez Avelar to get a ear or earlobe replaced. As with most plastic surgeries, skin is taken from another part of the body and then used as the dermic proxy for the missing body part. (We actually get to see such an operation in the film).
Why do kidnappers abduct people and sever their body parts in order to obtain their ill-gotten gains? Magrinho says its simple survival. "You either steal with a pen or a gun" he states matter of factly.
His statement shows an obvious correlation to politicians like MANDA BALA's main subject Jader Barbalho, an elected official-said to be one of the most powerful politicians in Brazil-who has held every office except the Brazilian Presidency.
Barbalho is believed to be an extremely corrupt office-holder. His piece des resistance of corruption ostensibly came during the Sudam fiasco. Sudam was a combine set up to encourage entrepreneurship and the formation and growth of businesses in Northern Brazil, one of the poorest regions in the entire country.
According to Federal Marshals and members of the Attorney general office that investigated Sudam, Barbalho supposedly set up dummy companies in poor states like Amazonia and then made sure government funds were swept into these fake companies and which he then pocketed.
Though Barbalho was arrested and charged with corruption, he was freed by a court ruling and thus promptly went back to politics-winning a Senate seat and returning to Congress.
Interestingly, Barbalho had supposedly set up a number of Frog Farms that were in fact empty shells meant to look good on paper instead of becoming actual functioning businesses.
We actually meet one such frog farmer-Diniz- in the film. He exports his frogs to the U.S. and is working on selling frogs to Europe.
You are probably wondering what do kidnapping, corruption, plastic surgery and frogs have in common?
On the surface, nothing. However, in exploring the subdermis of MANDA BALA, we see these elements all produce moneys of some sort.
Kidnappers make money from abducting victims, politicians make money from siphoning off government funds, plastic surgeons make money from treating kidnap victims and even frog farmers make money from selling the hopping critters.
What MANDA BALA is really about though is survival. Magrinho isn't kidnapping for fun. Abductions are his business and business is good.
MANDA BALA essentially shows the struggle for survival at every strata of society. From the protection needed by rich businessmen like Mr. M in order to live safely to Magrinho's choice to kidnap individuals for profit that allows him (and the people in his favela) some small method of eking out an existence.
Director Jason Kohn does a skillful job of linking and blending supposedly disparite sectors of Brazilian society here in MANDA BALA.
He uses titles well to convey a number of facts to audiences and makes logical ( and in one scene which fades from Magrinho to Barbalho) and visual correlations between his subjects.
He gets good milage from interviews with subjects like Mr. M, Magrinho, Dr. Avelar, Patricia and even Barbalho who denies his involvement in frog farms and Sudam corruption.
He creates interesting spatial relationships by having a translator appear with a interview subject into two-shots that either have a translator appear one side of the screen while the object is sitting on the other side or the subject is closer the canera while the translator sits in the back. This thus establishes a superior-inferior relationship visually which could be transposed in a metaphorical sense socioeconomically(I.E. rich-poor).
Kohn gets fine editing from cutters Doug Abel, Jenny Golden and Andy Grieve and first-rate work from DP Heloisa Passos who captures sun-drenched images that burst with rich colors.
By any standard, MANDA BALA is a well-made documentary film.
So, why do I feel so uneasy about it?
Maybe because I sensed a sense of superiority behind the film as if Kohn felt he was an pedestal looking down on Brazilians and making comments and judgements offscreen.
Its subtle but its there. Lurking behind the scenes. Hidden behind the editing. Covered up by the titles.
Don't get me wrong. MANDA BALA is a good, solid doc and certainly worth watching. It comes as no surprise that it won the Jury prize for Documentary and a Cinematography award at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
But MANDA BALA is not a great film because the Kohn is essentially detached from his subjects, standing above and not with them.
While watching MANDA BALA, I was thinking about documentarian, Michael Moore and I
began to understand why Moore has such a following amongst a cross-section of liberals and progressives.
It is not so much Moore's politics or his style of filmmaking as his empathy and sympathy for some of his interview subjects. Moore conveys the feeling (whether true or not, I cannot say) that he cares, that he has not shunted his emotions aside but works with them.
Iam not saying that Kohn should have taken poor slum dwellers out to lunch or joined some rabble rousing political group. Only that he takes a stance in MANDA BALA that I find a bit callous at times.
Then again, Brazil is tough country to live in and even some parts of U.S. and other areas of the globe aren't so easy to survive in either.
One fact jumped out at me in MANDA BALA. Frogs sometimes eat each other if there is no food around for them to consume. We even see a scene in the film with a frog who has incriminating frog legs hanging out of his mouth.
What can I tell you? Its a frog eat frog world.
