This documentary by Jon Blair (whose storied career has won his an Oscar, Bafta and 2 Emmys) is a thoroughly engrossing in depth look at the ongoing battle between Rio de Janeiro's drug traffickers and its police. It covers similar ground to films like "Elite Squad" (Tropa de Elite) which focused mainly on the police and "City of God" (Cidade de Deus) which was more about the favelas and the traffickers. Dancing with the Devil ties the two factions together and presents an intimate portrait of the fairly miserable lives of soldiers on the front line, presenting the complex reality of human life without merely resorting to "good guy/bad guy" clichés.
The film focuses on three main protagonists: Pastor Dione, an ex-trafficker turned evangelist preacher whose mission is to save the souls of the young men in the drugs trade; "Spiderman", the charismatic leader of one of Rio's main drug gangs; and Inspector Leonardo "GI Joe" Torres, a muscle bound, cigar chomping mean machine of a drug cop.
It's Pastor Dione that adds a new dimension to the story. Evangelical protestantism has been sweeping through the streets of Brazil over the past few years and so it seems fitting that a man like Dione should play such a key role in the film. It's through him that the film-makers were able to cut through the tough guy gangster facade and get to the real heart of characters like Spiderman, who pleads that he wants to get out of drugs but doesn't know how - but he hopes Jesus will show him the way eventually.
Rio is a city full of contradictions and Dancing with the Devil highlights them well. It's an unbiased portrait of an urban sprawl at boiling point, where drug lords run benevolent dictatorships and cops are locked into a seemingly endless (and arguably pointless) cycle of violence that only begets further violence. It's a city where everyone says that they don't want to fight, but every day they lock and load and head once more into the breach.
Dancing with the Devil is a gripping 100 minutes and well worth seeking out on the Channel 4 on demand service in the UK or trying to find on DVD.