Straight talk from Padilha on 'Elite'

February 12, 2008 BERLIN -- "Elite Squad" director Jose Padilha made a call for drugs to be legalized and suggested that the Brazilian police might have been responsible for the infamous piracy incident that propelled "Elite" to the top of the Brazilian boxoffice. Speaking to a roomful of journalists Monday at a Berlin International Film Festival news conference, Padilha said that the police might have been trying to seek revenge for the film, which shows mass corruption and violence within the force and is narrated by an officer of Brazil's so-called Elite Squad. Before the gathering, journalists attended a chaotic screening of the Portuguese-language competition title, which was shown with German subtitles after the English version failed to materialize.

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