Manda Bala (2007)

BRAZEN BRAZIL Manda Bala looks at the vast corruption chipping away at the South American country's social structure

Manda Bala, an exposé of the violence that is tearing up Brazil, could be accused of reveling in social pathology, yet there's no denying its grip: It is lurid, fascinating, sickening, and eye-opening. The director, Jason Kohn, slams together corruption at every level, showing us a frog farm that's a front for the draining of public funds by gangster politicos; the daily kidnappings that have turned São Paulo into an anarchic middle-class war zone; and the industry fed by that thuggishness, be it the sale of bulletproof cars or the plastic surgeon who's grown rich reconstructing the cut-off ears of kidnap victims.