“MANDA BALA (SEND A BULLET)” (2007)

Starring: Jader Barbalho, Claudio Fonteles, Diniz the frog farmer, Dr. Juarez Avelar, Mr. M the entrepreneur & Magrinho the drug-trafficking bank-robbing kidnapper
Produced & Directed by Jason Kohn
Official Site

Polly Staffle Rating: ****

Central Brazil is home to the world’s largest frog farm. I had no idea such an agricultural industry existed until I saw “Manda Bala (Send a Bullet),” the debut film from Oscar winning filmmaker Errol Morris’ protégé Jason Kohn. But after watching this brilliant documentary I now know there are a lot of weird, thriving industries that I previously had no knowledge of in the violent, politically corrupt and greatly socially-split, frog-eat-frog country of Brazil.

Kohn’s film opens with a man in a lab coat placing a thick piece of glass in front of a mannequin head. The screen then goes to very grainy black and white footage. The words “A film that cannot be shown in Brazil” appear. The black and white scene is of kidnappers and a victim. A masked man is holding a gun near a woman’s head. She is blindfolded.

“Her life is in your hands,” the male voice says in Portuguese. “You know what this is, right? She has grenades tied to her neck. We are very well armed and we are not playing. If you don’t pay, we are going to blow up your house with everybody in it, including your children and you. We are going to get this money.”

The film cuts back to the lab scene with the mannequin. A gun is fired, the bullet goes through the glass, shattering it and knocking the mannequin to the floor. The opening credits roll over skyline images from a helicopter of Sao Paulo, Brazil, a huge city of more than 20 million people. Then we meet the frog farmer Diniz, who looks like a cross between Ed O’Ross (Nikolai of “Six Feet Under”) and Brian Dennehy.

Wait… What? Yes, Kohn’s film seems a bit random at first. It also features subtitles sometimes, while other times interpreters are present and we hear a question asked in English then in Portuguese, answered in Portuguese and translated back to English. But slowly we as viewers get the hang of Kohn’s seemingly mishmash of a film. As we do, it becomes clear how this won the Sundance Film Festival Documentary Grand Jury Prize and why Morris (“Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.,” “The Thin Blue Line”) has called it “one of the best and most powerful films I have seen in years.” “Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)” is an engrossing cinematic experience that literally unfolds before us. Part dark comedy and shockumentary, and part educational and true crime documentary, Kohn’s film is like a nonfiction version of “Babel” or “Crash” that will blow you away with its subject matter. If that isn’t enough, it also has visual and audio styles galore, looking and sounding like a fiction film as opposed to a stuffy movie you’d only see at school or in an arthouse theater.

Aside from frogs, Kohn explores politics, plastic surgery, helicopters, crime and then some. The elements all appear as unrelated dots in the beginning, but by the time “Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)” is over; all the dots have been connected. The key is a man named Jader Barbalho, one of the most powerful politicians in Brazil. Jader has held every political position in Brazil, except president. He’s been kicked out of office, prosecuted and then elected to different positions.

While he was the head of the Brazilian senate, we learn Jader was at the center of a number of money scandals. He oversaw the Sudam Bureau of Amazonian Development, which was a government program to help start businesses in the poorest parts of the country. According to Brazil’s Attorney General Claudio Fonteles, however, Jader funneled the cash to his own companies, many of which, it seems, never even existed. He’s been accused of receiving nine million dollars from Sudam to build a $300,000 frog farm - Diniz’s frog farm. Though Kermit sang “Its Not Easy Being Green,” frog farms do appear to make laundering illegal cash quite simple. In all, nearly two billion dollars were stolen from Sudam.

So who in their right mind keeps electing Jadar - a man that is basically taking food out of the mouths of the poor? Ironically, it is those with nothing that vote him into office via bribed votes. Thus the rich gets even richer, the poor gets even poorer and the middle class completely disappears. Brazil’s divide in economics has created a huge sociological divide in the country that is basically unrepairable. The poor feel as though they are backed into a corner with no place to turn, so they lash out, using violence to get what they need from those that have it. No, Jader Barbalho isn’t to blame for each individual crime and every singular act of violence, but it’s politicians like him that created the environment that Mr. M the entrepreneur talks about in the film.

“Every stop light there is a risk of a guy with a gun appearing out of nowhere and robbing you,” Mr. M explains. “It’s just unimaginable to not have a bulletproof car in Sao Paulo city.” Yes, bulletproofing one’s car is a popular practice among those that can afford it. There are 50 or so companies that can bullet proof your car in Sao Paulo. It’s quite expensive though. Mr. M’s Porsche 911, a $135,000 car in the United States, cost him $55,000 in bulletproofing. There are even classes on how to drive your bulletproof car and avoid being kidnapped. San Paulo is also the home to the largest fleet of privately owned helicopters. Those that can afford it, take to the skies in getting around the city, so they don’t have to deal with the threat of car jackings and such.

The city’s police department does have an anti-kidnapping unit. We meet one of the detectives in the film. Straight from him, we hear how their 80-some odd detectives are just not enough. Crime is always a step ahead. One of the most telling moments is when he is showing off his own arsenal of weapons. He pulls out a gun that is illegal to own and then states “You can buy this from smugglers as you can buy nuclear weapons or cocaine.” To which Kohn asks “You can buy nuclear weapons in Brazil?” The detective hesitates and then says “I don’t know. I’ve never tried, but I guess so. With money you can buy everything.”

But money is something many in Brazil do not have. So the poor have turned to “Robin Hood” like techniques to not only get money, but to also share it among others living in slums. Selling drugs and stealing can translate to decent loot, but the real money lies in kidnapping. “When the rich steal from the poor... the poor steal the rich,” one of the film’s taglines reads. A ski-mask wearing man named Magrinho is an example of one of the individuals born into poverty that does such practices. By age nine, Margrinho had turned to a life of crime. Seven years later, he committed his first murder. Currently he kidnaps and holds individuals for ransom. “I don’t really think about it,” Margrinho says when asked about what he does. “I spend my time planning robberies to get more money. Or else we don’t survive.”

We also meet someone on the other end of the kidnapping spectrum in a woman named Patricia. She was abducted. They locked her in a room with a television on full volume, so neighbors could not hear her crying and screaming for help. The TV was the only way she knew it was night or day. “I remember when the programs were over those vertical colored lines come up on the screen and that terrible noise,” Patricia said. “So I was lucky enough to get the whole week of Alfred Hitchcock. I watched ‘The Birds’ the same day they cut my first ear. That night I dreamed that a bird had bitten my ear off. I still have the same dream today.”

Most kidnapped victims in Brazil have their ears cut off. The practice is widespread. The ears are sent back to the families and loved ones with photos, notes and videos demanding ransom. Though this is a hideous and vile crime that leaves the victims scarred physically and emotionally, the kidnappers usually get money that they can then share with those around them, so Magrinho has no remorse in what he does. Dr. Juarez Avelar also profits. Avelar is a plastic surgeon that specializes in ear reconstruction. He takes cartilage from the individual’s ribs and makes them a new ear.

It is easy to see how hopeless it can become for some and how the cycle can continue. It’s as if Brazil’s whole ecosystem is based around crime. It starts at the top with the government and trickles down to the poor. It’s completely insane. Brazil seems to be governed by Reaganomics on crack or steroids. “You either steal with a gun or a pen,” Margrinho says. “Look, how do the politicians steal? With a pen... Our politicians never look out for the poor. They only see the rich.”

There are currently companies developing microchips that Brazilians can have implanted under their skin, so they can be monitored 24 hours a day. People are actually excited about the technology and can’t wait to get “chipped.” Mr. M included. “If it was only available through one company, I’d only put one,” Mr. M said. “ As soon as the competitor came out, I would use two. Then I would feel safe in San Paulo.” Though his car is bulletproofed and he has taken a course on how to avoid being kidnapped, Mr. M will not feel safe in his own country until he is equipped with two microchips on his person. And to think many Americans feel they have it bad.

- Chad Clinton Freeman, April 2008