Manda Bala – “send a bullet”

These are the eyes of a present favela Robin Hood, from the documentary Manda Bala. A killer and a kidnapper. He robs Sao Paulo’s rich by kidnapping them, and disperses the cash to invest in the city slums – from food to paving the roads. Not the best documentary I’ve seen, but it definitely does bring up many difficult issues – the well known class differences in Brazil and the ineffectiveness of its police forces. People do not feel secure, especially the rich. According to the World Bank, Brazil’s inequality pattern is only better than Sierra Leone’s and Central Africa Republic’s. Brazil’s richest 20 percent earns 62 percent of the nation’s income, while Brazil’s lowest 20 percent earns just 2.6 percent of the income. And Brazil’s inequality is even more relevant because of the size of Brazilian population (sixth in the world) and because Brazil’s GDP ranks amongst the ten biggest GDPs in the world.
Statistics show that kidnapping rates are at least 1 person per day. They usually target the very rich, upper class. These are targeted, well planned operations, where the person is often followed for days before having a gun pointed to his/her head. Yet the majority of people still hang out in the streets. People are cautious, but do not stop living their life. They carry only what they have to, never too much cash, or extra credit cards. I wonder what are the causes for these major differences between the Americas and Asia. Why the south American slums are so extremely violent compared to the East Asian slums. Perhaps it is due to religion, or slavery under colonialism.

I remember one powerful moment from an interview with a Brazilian woman who was previously kidnapped and had both her ears cut off. When asked if she forgives them for this act she actually took her time and answered compassionately. She did not show signs of hate at all, but realized that these people grow up with violence in the slums, and know nothing other than it. It is their way of life and how they were educated. And I wonder how I cannot feel compassionate at all about Palestinian suicide bombers, who also grow up on the other side of a wall, and have little opportunities in their lives.

Even with its occasional faults, Manda Bala does what documentaries do best—illuminate an intellectual or social situation that our otherwise narrow Western viewpoint would never even consider. The visual beauty in the film—Brazil is one of the most inviting looking regions in the entire world—contrasted with the cynical, almost comic approach to the problems, lends to moments of well earned epiphany, as well as frequently flops back into directorial self-indulgence. The story of how the influential of Sao Paolo came to this fraudulent conclusion makes for an incredibly insightful experience. Here’s hoping the eventual reform movement gets as much prescient attention. (source)