VIDEO - Jason Kohn's MANDA BALA - A Brilliant New Film

Zoom In producer Alex Moseman thought that I overdid the praise on this interview, but I didn't say anything that I haven't been saying to everyone I meet. I don't pretend to be a critic, I'm a publicist down to my socks. What gets my blood running is to fall in love with a movie, and my favorite movie at the festival so far is Jason Kohn's MANDA BALA ("Send a Bullet"). I'm sure my enthusiasm gets out of control, but I do have 25 years of making judgments about what I think is good, and my track record is damned good. That's why critics trusted me for all those years. And every single critic I have spoken to at the festival who has seen MANDA BALA says it is their favorite documentary.

Jason worked awhile for my client and friend Errol Morris, so a lot of the writing on the film emphasizes that. But over the years I have seen dozens of Errol Morris imitators, and let me say that Jason is definitely not an Errol Morris imitator. This movie doesn't look anything like Errol has ever done. What Kohn has taken from Errol is not a host of quirky characters, but a rigorous process and relentless quest for excellence. His style is more intense and kinetic, unlike Errol's more meditative work. But like Errol's movies, this film was discovered in the making, over a long period of time.

There are two basic strands to the story. One involves the super-violent world of kidnapping in Sao Paolo. We meet a woman who had both her ears cut off by kidnappers. It seems ear amputation is the preferred method of terrifying families into paying huge ransoms. There is a plastic surgeon that has developed a practice of reconstructing ears. A businessman relates that nearly every person of wealth has been a victim of crime or kidnapped. Some have been kidnapped more than once. Kidnapping is a booming business in Sao Paolo: it has the most bullet-proof cars, and the most private helicopters. Technologies.

The second part of MANDA BALA is about Jader Barbalho, Brazil's most powerful politician. It's really hard to think of too many people in the the world who are more outright evil than this man. Kim Jong-il? In a nutshell, he stole over two billion dollars from a public works project, thereby plunging the entire northeast of the country into starvation and death. I kept thinking, "what is he going to do with two billion dollars?" If he had considered stealing only one billion instead of two billion, it would have had a titanic impact on the ability of tens of thousands of people to survive.

You might see these two stories stretched out to feature length in a lot of Sundance documentaries. But Kohn also sticks in other elements that are less easily understood, like a big frog farm. He follows the frogs from the tadpole stage until they are fried and eaten whole at restaurants in Brazil. It's a metaphor for something, but for what exactly? And how do these frogs fit in with Barbalho and kidnapping? How does everything fit together? The movie is fascinating, frightening and sometimes peculiarly funny, but always it keeps you guessing, wondering where it all is going to end up.
And when the end finally comes, it's like the best of fiction. It is unexpected and entirely satisfying.

Unlike Michael Moore, Kohn doesn't have all the answers in advance. He isn't searching for footage to back up what he is already sure is the truth. Like Errol, Kohn knows he's lost and doesn't really know what he's looking for, but is willing to go to excruciating lengths to find out. And when he gets to the end of his journey, there is only more mystery.

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