Brazilian actor-director Petra Costa made a big splash internationally with The Edge of Democracy (2019), which chronicled the financial and political crisis in her homeland, including legal troubles faced by former presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, which paved the way for the rise of far-right populist Jair Bolsonaro. The film earned worldwide acclaim, an Oscar nomination and a Netflix deal. Now Costa is back with a sequel documentary of sorts, Apocalypse in the Tropics, updating the story to cover Lula’s release from jail after his spurious charges were annulled, returning to politics and scoring a bloody close-call victory over Bolsonaro in 2023.
Adding an extra religious dimension to an already densely packed sociopolitical soap opera, Costa tells a rich story here about the fuzzy line between democracy and theocracy, clashing spiritual values and inflammatory culture-war rhetoric. Backed by some starry industry players, including a debut first foray into documentary from Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B, Apocalypse in the Tropics should grab plenty of interest following its world premiere in Venice this week, boosted by some glaring parallels between Bolsonaro and Donald Trump.
Costa initially planned to focus on Bolsonaro’s notoriously callous mishandling of the Covid pandemic, which saw Brazil lose 700,000 people, the second highest death toll in the world after the US. But her focus broadened and deepened during the film’s four-year gestation, so the pandemic is now just one of many chapters. Other stand-out sections include the extremely divisive election contest, which features guerrilla footage of police apparently obstructing voters with pro-Lula views, and its violent aftermath, when Bolsonaro initially refused to concede, apparently mulling a military coup to stay in power, and encouraging his followers to storm Brasilia’s parliamentary building. Costa does not overplay the Trump connections but close-up footage of this riot, with protestors demolishing statues and defecating on desks, inescapably calls to mind the January 6 insurgency.
Most of the events and characters featured in Apocalypse in the Tropics will be familiar to anyone with a casual interest in global politics. But Costa also brings a fresh dimension to this still-raw story, specifically exploring how Brazil’s powerful Christian evangelical movement has become a major political force in recent years, growing from just five per cent of the population 40 years ago to over 30 per cent today, shaping elections and boosting right-wing candidates. In recent years they have embraced a sinister brand of messianic populism called “dominionism”, actively campaigning to fill government and judicial posts with evangelicals who share their conservative values.
Claiming centre stage in this film is televangelist Silas Malafaia, a highly successful preacher and business tycoon, who served as self-styled confidante and kingmaker to Bolsonaro during his 2022 election race. Using his huge media platform as a pulpit, Malafaia framed the presidential trace as an existential culture war between traditional family values and “left-wing nutjobs” with a “satanic” agenda of gay marriage, abortion rights, feminism, compulsory unisex toilets and more. The director and her team secured impressively close access to Malafaia over several years, including home visits and shared meetings with Bolsonaro himself. A skilled orator and self-promoting blowhard, Malafaia is a natural performer on screen, clearly unflustered by Costa’s more liberal agenda.
Apocalypse in the Tropics is not an even-handed exercise in journalistic detachment, given how obviously Costa favours Lula’s progressive values over Bolsonaro and his tribe. She gives Lula an easier ride, partly because he is a much more genial and likeable overall, though his track record in office is far from perfect and arguably merits more scrutiny than it gets here. But in fairness, the director is generous and warm in her interviews with Bolsonaro voters, and thanks both presidential candidates for their cooperation in the credits. While Costa never appears on screen, her presence as narrator and interviewer shapes the film as a personal journey, challenging her own secular liberal values and disdain for religious. As Lula himself admits during his interview sequence, Communism partly failed because it denied people their comforting spiritual faith.
Costa and her team enrich this contemporary story with historical context. A digression into the ideological weaponising of evangelical Christianity during the Cold War, with US preachers like Billy Graham playing to huge crowds during Brazil’s 21-year military dictatorship, summons the lingering “ghost” of Communism and Latin America’s more socially engaged, left-leaning “liberation theology” movement. Similar fears endure today: hearing 21st century Brazilian pastors warning their flock about the evils of “cultural Marxism” and the Frankfurt School is one hilariously surreal detail that deserves its own spin-off documentary.
As a handsome cinematic package, Apocalypse in the Tropics transcends straight documentary reportage. There are majestic drone shots, raw phone-cam clips, rewinds and flashbacks. Reflecting the literal take on the Book of Revelation espoused by many evangelicals, Costa also punctuates her film with visually arresting close-up shots of Hell as painted by Bosch, Breughel, Rubens and others. A richly layered soundtrack weaves Rodrigo Leão’s tropical jazz score into an eclectic mixtape of Bach and Verdi, Terry Riley and Pauline Oliveros.
Director: Petra Costa
Screenwriters: Petra Costa, Alessandra Orofino, Nels Bangerter, David Barker, Tina Baz
Producer: Alessandra Orofino
Cinematography: João Atala, Pedro Urano, Murilo Salazar
Editing: David Barker, Victor Miaciro, Nels Bangerter, Jordana Berg, Tina Baz, Eduardo Gripa
Music: Rodrigo Leão
Production company: Busca Vida Filmes (Brazil)
Venue: Venice Film Festival (Out of Competition)
In Portuguese, English
110 minutes
