Captain Nascimento has grown more mature and more strategic to face his new lines of enquiry. His performance in the first movie was so powerful that it made José Padilha, Bráulio Mantovani and Daniel Rezende change the film's concept in the editing room.

From secondary character and narrator, Nascimento became the protagonist and carved a niche within Brazil's collective imagination. The actor of "God is Brazilian" (2003), "Carandiru" (2003), "The Man of the Year" (2003), "The Middle of the World" (2003), "The Machine" (2005), "Lower City" (2005), "Saneamento Básico" (2007) and "Romance" (2009), returns to the role of Nascimento, and this time, also as the movie's co-producer.

Just in 2009, Irandhir Santos took part in three large productions: "Besouro", by João Daniel Tikhomiroff; "I Travel Because I Have to, I Come Back Because I Love You", by Karim Ainouz and Marcelo Gomes; and "Olhos Azuis", by José Joffily.

In ELITE SQUAD: THE ENEMY WITHIN, the actor who played Quaderma in the miniseries "A Pedra do Reino" (2007/Luiz Fernando Carvalho) and Maninho in "Bog of Beasts" (2006/Cláudio Assis) takes on another great role. At the beginning of the movie, his character is Colonel Nascimento's antagonist. It is Fraga, alongside Nascimento, who has the most important dialogue in the film.

Boasting a background in theater, Irandhir is considered one of the great new revelations coming from Pernambuco. For someone who had never entered a slum in Rio, to live out the role of a professor and NGO coordinator involved with the defense of Human Rights was quite a challenge.

"Perhaps Mathias is more lonesome now than ever. My work with Fatima (Toledo) was aimed at finding this point. He is all alone and doesn't have anybody's help. Hissense of honesty is even more intense. Mathias and Nascimento have a slightly different relationship. In the first movie, Mathias learns how to be Nascimento. In the sequel, Mathias is more of a friend, and he will open his colleague's eyes. If he has a role, that would be it. That's what he's there for," says Andre Ramiro about his character.

In September, Ramiro - who is a hip hop MC - released the CD "Cronicas de um Rimador" with his own compositions. Hired by TV Record, and having worked in "Last Stop 174" (2008), by Bruno Barreto, "Patas Arriba" (2010), by Venezuelan director Alejandro Wiedemann, and in the series "Casos e Acasos" (TV Globo) and "A Lei do Crime" (Record), this Carioca from Vila Kennedy - taken from the box-office of a movie theater in the South Zone directly to the screen with "Elite Squad" - wants nothing more from life than to be involved with cinema and music.

According to Muller, working on ELITE SQUAD: THE ENEMY WITHIN "was a novelty." A Journalist at PUC-RS, she also worked as a journalism nucleus coordinator, editor and presenter for MTV Brazil's affiliate in Rio Grande do Sul, and assistant director and editor for TV Globo's specials produced by Casa de Cinema in Porto Alegre. After a brief career as a model that led her to live in Asia, she moved to Sao Paulo and decided to pursue a career as an actress. In TV, she worked in "Uma Rosa Com Amor"(SBT), "Revelacao" (SBT) and "Eterna Magia" (TV Globo). In cinema, she acted in "If Nothing Else Works Out" (2008), by Jose Eduardo Belmonte; the international co-production "Plastic City" (2008), by Nelson Yu Lik-wai; and "Cao Sem Dono" (2007), by Beto Brant and Renato Ciasca.

"We performed in a context of hyper-realistic interpretation. I'd smoked for 12 years and stopped the day I played the most difficult scene of my entire career. I re-evaluated my whole life right then and there. It was like a rebirth," she says.