Synopsis

Set in Brazil during the military dictatorship, the film follows a group of inexperienced left-wing guerrillas who kidnap U.S. Ambassador Charles Burke Elbrick in Rio de Janeiro. Their goal is to force the government to release political prisoners. As the four-day hostage crisis unfolds, the captors confront their own uncertainty, the ambassador's humanity, and the brutal consequences of their political gamble.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film is based loosely on Fernando Gabeira's 1979 memoir, O Que E Isso, Companheiro?, which recounts his participation in the 1969 kidnapping.

• The real kidnapping was carried out by members of the Revolutionary Movement 8th October and the Adao Libertadora Nacional, two groups opposing Brazil's military government.

• The English-language title was used for the film's U.S. release. Its original Portuguese title translates approximately as "What Is This, Comrade?"

• The screenplay took nearly a decade to develop and went through six different screenwriters before production began.

• Alan Arkin was cast as Ambassador Elbrick partly because the role required an actor who could establish a fully developed character almost immediately.

• Stewart Copeland, best known as the drummer of the Police, composed the film's score.

• Brazil submitted the film for the 70th Academy Awards, where it received a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.

• The film premiered at the 1997 Berlin International Film Festival and helped bring a chapter of modern Brazilian political history to international audiences.