Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1967, José Padilha trained as a physicist and economist before turning to film. Bus 174 (2002) is a documentary about a hostage crisis on a Rio bus, shown live on television. Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite, 2007), a violent fiction about the BOPE special police unit and corruption in Rio's favelas, won the Golden Bear at Berlin and was a mass popular phenomenon in Brazil, though criticised for glorifying police violence. He later directed the Hollywood RoboCop remake (2014) and the series Narcos.
Filmography
- Bus 174 (2002)
- Elite Squad (2007)
- Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (2010)
- RoboCop (2014)