{"id":22162,"date":"2015-06-18T15:15:41","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T18:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=22162"},"modified":"2025-08-07T12:08:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T15:08:07","slug":"the-trigger-film-depicts-the-disappearance-and-death-of-amarildo-de-souza-film-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=22162","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Trigger\u201d: Film Depicts the Disappearance and Death of Amarildo de Souza [FILM REVIEW]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"PT\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The case of Amarildo de Souza<\/a>, the bricklayer who was tortured to death<\/a> by the Military Police in Rocinha<\/a> in 2013, made waves across Brazil and abroad. His\u00a0death became a symbol of police repression<\/a> in a country where thousands are killed by police every year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The title of Rodrigo Mac Niven\u2019s documentary about Amarildo, O Estopim (The Trigger)<\/em><\/a>\u00a0reflects this. In many ways, Amarildo’s story, and the campaign for justice after details of his case came to light, was a \u201ctrigger\u201d in changing attitudes towards the pacification<\/a> process implemented in Rio\u2019s favelas since 2008.<\/p>\n

The Trigger<\/em> premiered at the Rio Film Festival<\/a>\u00a0in 2014. During a public screening held by Viva Favela<\/a>, Mac Niven and cinematographer Neto de Oliveira spoke about the film-making process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened during the torture, no one knows, except the torturers themselves.\u201d – Rodrigo Mac Niven<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Still<\/a><\/p>\n

Those who followed the Where Is Amarildo?<\/a> (Cad\u00ea Amarildo?) campaign are familiar with Amarildo\u2019s photo, shared widely in the media. But beyond this, there are few concrete records of his life. Consequently, The\u00a0Trigger <\/em>mixes documentary footage with fictional sequences, in which Amarildo is played by Bruno Rodrigues.<\/p>\n

However, The\u00a0Trigger<\/em>‘s main focus\u00a0<\/em>is Amarildo’s\u00a0friend Duda, who recounts his own experiences of police intimidation and violence in Rocinha. \u201cI grew up being beaten by the police,\u201d he says.\u00a0The focus on Duda came out of the director\u2019s desire not to exploit\u00a0Amarildo\u2019s widow, Bete<\/a>, and his family, who have been the subject of intense media attention. But, as Mac Niven clarified: \u201cObviously the family had to be present. So we used Bete\u2019s testimony. We chose to show the family through their struggle.\u201d In the film, Bete explains her decision to speak out when her husband disappeared: \u201cThen I said, wait right there: I\u2019m going to start to open my mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Amarildo's<\/a><\/p>\n

Mac Niven makes use of the little that was known about Amarildo, including his passion for fishing and his physical strength, which explains his nickname \u2018Ox\u2019 (Boi). But he is often\u00a0shown from far away, even filmed by drone. \u201cWhen Amarildo appears in the story he\u2019s always distant, we don\u2019t see his face well,\u201d said Mac Niven. \u201cIt makes us think: \u2018Who is this person?\u2019 But during the torture he appears to the world. In the torture scene we bring the camera right up to his face.\u201d The result is that the brutal and graphic torture sequence almost\u00a0includes the audience in the scene.<\/p>\n

Audience implication was important for Mac Niven, who intended the film to be about more than just the story of one man, but about police repression that affects all Brazilians. \u201cIn a militarized state, you are the enemy,\u201d he said. The\u00a0film shows\u00a0cases of police repression outside favelas, such as during the military dictatorship<\/a> and, more recently, during\u00a0popular protests in 2013<\/a>. But the audience is reminded\u00a0that police violence in other contexts like those 2013 protests receives much more media attention than\u00a0is given\u00a0to\u00a0day to day police violence in favelas.<\/p>\n

The Trigger <\/em>questions attempts by the media and politicians to label Amarildo as a drug trafficker after his disappearance, a type of \u201ccriminalization of the victim\u201d that helps to justify\u00a0police violence. \u201cThe \u2018figure\u2019 of the trafficker somehow serves as a justification for taking someone from his house and into the Pacifying Police Unit<\/a> (UPP) headquarters, torturing him, killing him, hiding his body and lying about what happened,\u201d said Mac Niven.<\/p>\n

Although the film highlights the strength of Amarildo\u2019s family, friends and supporters and their campaign for justice,\u00a0The Trigger<\/em> makes for difficult watching. The seriousness of the subject is reflected in the cinematography. Neto de Oliveira, cinematographer, commented on the \u201cdesaturated\u201d imagery. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want a colorful film,\u201d he said, adding that the cloudy, rainy weather in Rocinha during the filming helped them achieve this.<\/p>\n

\"Amarildo<\/a><\/p>\n

Mac Niven explained he aimed to “show how Amarildo\u2019s story is more than just a story about Amarildo\u201d and Bete\u2019s interview corroborates this, mentioning the many other \u201cAmarildos\u201d killed in Brazil each year. But the film never forgets the person who was the \u201ctrigger\u201d for the film: the bricklayer, the \u2018Ox,\u2019 the father, the favela resident. In Duda\u2019s words: \u201cThey did such an evil thing to such a good person.\u201d<\/p>\n

25 Military Police officers were found to be involved in Amarildo\u2019s death and disappearance, four of whom are currently in prison, including the ex-commander of Rocinha\u2019s Pacification Unit, Major Edson Santos<\/a>. Amarildo\u2019s body has never been found.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas The case of Amarildo de Souza, the bricklayer who was tortured to death by the Military Police in Rocinha in 2013, made waves across Brazil and abroad. His\u00a0death became a symbol […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":22169,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1277,1333,1334,336,1329],"tags":[944,125,602,25,918,15,17,12,156,999],"writer":[1596],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uppwatch","8":"category-event-reports","9":"category-reviews","10":"category-violations","11":"category-by-international-observers","12":"tag-cadeamarildo","13":"tag-drug-traffic","14":"tag-film","15":"tag-human-rights","16":"tag-military-police","17":"tag-pacifying-police-unit","18":"tag-police-brutality","19":"tag-rocinha","20":"tag-south-zone","21":"tag-torture","22":"writer-sarah-jacobs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81346,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22162\/revisions\/81346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22162"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=22162"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=22162"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=22162"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=22162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}