Manda Bala (Send a Bullet) is a U.S. documentary film directed by Jason Kohn about corruption and kidnapping in Brazil.Manda Bala profiles such subjects as a businessman who bullet-proofs his cars, a plastic surgeon who reconstructs the ears of kidnap victims, former Governor and Senator Jáder Barbalho, a powerful Brazilian politician from the state of Pará who used a frog farm for money laundering, and the owner of the frog farm himself (see SUDAM).
The film details many of the reasons for Brazil’s corruption including the fact that politicians in office there are exempt from civilian court proceedings, with the consequence that they will never be punished for crimes they commit in office. Another factor — and the other driving point of the film — is the ubiquity of kidnapping in Brazil, which ensures that the likelihood of redressing these crimes is fairly low and that someone’s enemies (political or otherwise) are apt to disappear fairly easily.