Apocalypse in the Tropics review — Brazil on the brink
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The key figures are the president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the former president, Jair Bolsonaro, and the fiery televangelist and 'kingmaker' pastor, Silas Malafaia. Costa interviews the imperious Malafaia in his private jet and banqueting in his lavish home while he speaks of God, Jesus and a loathing of 'left-wing nutjobs'. Her access is impeccable and she also gets time with Bolsonaro, who is extraordinary in his creepy lumpen ordinariness — he's the Trump-fancying anti-Trump.
The film is divided into five chapters with headings such as 'God in the Time of Cholera' (for the Covid pandemic) and 'Genesis' (the backstory), building towards the climactic 'Revelations', which covers the attacks in January 2023 on government buildings in Brasilia by enraged Bolsonaro supporters. This event appears to unfold, in true postmodern style, as a vast and violent homage to the US Capitol attack two years previously — they even have their own rioter in an Instagram-friendly horned fur hat.
The film is best, however, when it's personal. Costa's films are highly authored, her consistent and thoughtful voiceovers asking huge questions about the judgments baked into modern Christianity and how spirituality can be easily hijacked for nefarious political aims. Her camera pans over religious art and she wonders of the Bolsonaro era, 'How was Jesus being used to justify a government with such a lack of empathy?'
Ending with uncertainty, and a sense that Brazil is never too far away from another military dictatorship, this is sobering, essential viewing.★★★★☆12A, 109minIn cinemas now; Netflix from Jul 14
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