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.
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