'Apocalypse in the Tropics' is a horrifying look at Brazilian politics today
Americans will find a lot familiar in Petra Costa's look at Brazil's recent election and insurrection.
If you’re an American watching Apocalypse in the Tropics, Petra Costa’s new documentary about recent events in Brazilian politics, there’s one obvious takeaway: Right-wing religious extremism, denial of election results, and post-defeat insurrections aren’t just for us Americans anymore.
Costa made the acclaimed documentary The Edge of Democracy in 2019, also about her homeland and the rise and fall of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (known as “Lula.”) Apocalypse in the Tropics is the follow-up, focusing on the rise of the right-wing politician Jair Bolsonaro, who was elected president in 2018. The film, along with The Edge of Democracy, is streaming on Netflix now, after it debuted at some film festivals last fall.
The focus of the new doc is on Bolsonaro and his riding a wave of religious nationalism into the leadership of the country. It’s all going to look very familiar to Americans watching this, from Bolsonaro’s supporters backing him with a messianic fervor, to questions about exactly what the leader himself believes.
His right-hand man in this effort is kingmaker figure Silas Malafaia, a pastor/grifter who very clearly evokes Jerry Falwell, Jim Bakker, and other American televangelists of the 1980s, as well as the prosperity gospel hucksters of today. He’s certainly compelling and charismatic, but also one of the most transparently villainous figures I’ve seen in a nonfiction so far this year.
Costa presents this all with footage, having access to most of the relevant people; she also offers a compelling voiceover narration herself. The film’s sympathies are very clear.
Lula isn’t exactly a pure hero himself. I remember Barack Obama, in his memoir, writing that Lula possessed “the scruples of a Tammany Hall boss,” and we see Lula trying to triangulate on the trans issue by saying some pretty horrific stuff, while also campaigning in churches, which he had previously made a point of refusing to do.
So the film shows us all sides. Also, even though he lives in Brazil, Glenn Greenwald is not in the film, which, if you ask me, is one of its best qualities.
It leads up to another thing very familiar: Bolsonaro loses the election to Lula in 2002 and then, nearly two years to the day after January 6, his supporters stage an insurrection of their own. Like its American counterpart, it failed, with Bolsonaro seeming to face legal accountability.
The ex-leader, also, between his frequent hospitalizations, hid out in Florida for a time, although Donald Trump earlier this month threatened Brazil with new tariffs if they don’t drop Bolsonaro’s criminal case.
Should our conclusion be that democracy won, theocracy lost, and we should be glad that Bolsonaro faces possible true legal accountability? Possibly, although if recent events have taught on anything, it’s that such victories tend to be premature.