In this devastating thriller, businessmen Giba (Borges) and Ivan (Ricca) decide to do away with their partner by hiring hitman Anisio (Miklos). But once the job's done, Anisio proves impossible to get rid of.
Turning up at the construction firm's offices with alarming regularity, he interrupts meetings, struts around as if he's on the managerial payroll and demands all manner of bizarre perks.
Straight out of the slums of Sao Paulo, Anisio's decided that these white-collar boys are going to be his meal ticket into the city's middle class, and it's not long before he's mixed up with Marina (Ximenes), the Goth daughter of the man he whacked, to the horror of all concerned.
Focusing on the disturbing relationship between Anisio and Marina, director Beto Brant takes us into unusual gangster territory. Employing some staggering camera sequences and editing tricks, Brant captures this frantic world in which the only goal of any of the characters seems to be to satisfy their desires ("You got appetite? Go for it", advises Anisio).
Moving through whorehouses, bars, and clubs (the lengthy rave sequence is remarkable), Brant turns "The Trespasser" into a blistering political drama as Anisio tries to create his own gangster's paradise, working his way up from slum to suburbs with nothing more than his menacing presence.
Forget the crowd-pleasing artiness of "Amores Perros", this slice of Latin American cinema is as raw as a gaping bullet wound with a take-no-prisoners attitude that doesn't give a damn about critical acclaim.
Foregrounding the clash between the ghetto and the corruption of the "respectable" world, "The Trespasser" is a fiery Latin time bomb, with an underlying political message that's summed up in the blistering lyrics of gangsta rapper/actor Sabotage: "Society destroys your life/Around a suicide capitalism/Boom!"
In Portuguese with English subtitles.
The Trespasser (O Invasor) (2002)
