Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)

This film will teach you a lot that you didn't know about Brazilian society and that nation's struggles with deep undercurrents of poverty, corruption, extortion and social confrontation. It fails to fully connect the dots in terms of why and how these problems manifest, but it definitely exposes a good deal of truth in terms of day-to-day realities for some of Brasil's wealthy and poor citizens. It's an aesthetically-driven documentary, with visual meditations on frogs, ears, cityscapes and the expressions of interview subjects and their sometimes equally intriguing interpreters. The soundtrack is an alluring collection of Brazilian pop and traditional arrangements that hums away in the background, as we watch some rather interesting folks talk about how they fit into the skewed morass of Brazilian society, whether perpetrator, victim, agent of the law or medical healer. Be warned: some of the raw kidnapping footage is graphic and disturbing.