4年前,臭名昭著的拉西欧监狱发生了一场暴动,这一事件引起里约热内卢州社会的广泛争论,也不同程度改变了许多人的命运。直接领导精英部队(BOPE)的罗伯特·纳西贝托中校(Wagner Moura 饰)由此荣升为安全局的副秘书长,拥有更大的施展空间;而他的爱将安德鲁·马蒂亚斯(André Ramiro 饰)被政客当作替罪羔羊,踢出了BOPE部队。当然,纳西贝托也遭受着来自政坛、战友和家人各方面的压力,他将一腔愤懑转化到工作中,不仅扩编强化了BOPE的实力,还通过一次次铁腕的打击荡涤了贫民区毒贩的罪恶势力。 毒贩销声匿迹,黑暗的阴霾却未散去。以罗卡(Sandro Rocha 饰)等人为首的腐败警察势力进入贫民窟,他们欺行霸市,官匪勾结,成为里约州另一个难以祛除的顽疾……
Colombian music icon Juanes plays Moisés, the eldest of three brothers plying this perilous trade and the linchpin of the operation, while Alberto Guerra delivers a compelling performance as Ulises, a man paralyzed by conflicting decisions and haunted by fear and grief. When Juan (Alejandro Speitzer) — the youngest of the brothers — is coerced into working for a more powerful, rival criminal organization, the shocking underbelly of the business is laid bare and there are tragic consequences.
The film shows an obscure episode from the life of a Stalinist criminal - Colonel of the Office of Public Security, Julia Brystiger. Her nickname was "Bloody Luna" because during interrogations she tortured prisoners with extreme cruelty. At the beginning of 1960s she appeared in Laski near Warsaw, in the Institute for the Blind, where the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, was also a frequent visitor. His imprisonment in the years 1953-1956 was supervised by none other than Julia Brystiger herself. During the difficult and tempestuous conversation with the Primate, Julia Brystiger rejects the communist ideology, asks for her crimes to be forgiven and for help in finding God...
The movie is generally lacking in character development. The film at one point follows the creepiest-looking gangster (Flavio Bucci from the "The Night Train Murders") to his home where he is shacking up with another gangster's wife and her kid, but more than character development this seems to be more an excuse for another sex scene. The Placido character has an interesting flashback of him working on a filthy fishing barge, which is contrasted with a fantasy where he is piloting a yacht. This movie is very class-conscious in the way it has this poor Sicilian boy falling for a rich, northern girl (the Italian title "La Orca" comes from the designer outfit she's wearing). Placido is pretty good here, but this handsome, light-complexioned hunk is not too convincing as a lower-class Sicilian ruffian. As for Neihaus, I can't decide if she is a bad actress, or is just playing a really obnoxious character (she's more Paris Hilton than Patty Hearst). She does get naked several times which, judging from the English, title was the primary consideration.
Sophie is a twenty-year-old American woman who has lived all her solitary life in a bubble. During a vacation in Palermo with her sister, she meets Giulio and his group of Sicilian friends. Anxious to let go and live life to the hilt, Sophie decides to walk along the edge of disaster and gets sucked into a vortex of risky behavior that turns a mere romp on the wild side into a heart-pumping fight for survival – and redemption.