Ação Entre Amigos

ACAO ENTRE AMIGOS (Friendly Fire) is best described by its English title. The Brazilian media has called it a realistic response to FOUR DAYS IN SEPTEMBER (O que e isso, companheiro?)the 97/98 Oscar-nom viewed by many in Brazil as a Hollywood production masquerading as a Brazilian film romanticizing the victims of the the military dictatorship. Knowing that in advance, I still found it very clear that "Friendly Fire" was indeed a more balanced, contemporary and real visit to Brazil's recent past. The view of the armed opposition by the middle to upper class students is served straight up here, not resorting to tear-jerking cliches of innocent, ill-fated Bohemian victims. It seems the latter results in better Box Office results, but nevertheless director Breto Brant who also adapted Marcal de Aquino's "Acao entre amigos" for the screen, tells it like it was more often than not, and this "risk" seems very successful. The film, at 78 minutes, is short, to the point, and action-packed. It takes place today as four friends are traveling for a "fishing trip" where the catch is their torturer 25 or so years ago, now living under another identity after having been declared dead by authorities. Through flashbacks, the films reconstructs each character's ordeals during those terrible years. But, what they don't realize until the end is that a secret yet unknown will drastically change the reality of the story they lived together 25 years ago. Its tragic consequences will alter the lives of all involved in the story. A good, CREDIBLE political thriller/buddy drama.

This film came blazing out, throwing us into the journey of four men who track down the chief torturer of their political prison past. They seek revenge but it all goes a little nasty. Too much happens in so little time with an over abundance of dialogue, that it never manages to build up into a fine suspense thriller. Maybe it just had a point to get across. But what?