"What do you do when the mask of civility falls of and what appears is an astonishing image of ourselves?"
Filmmaker Petra Costa asks this question in her documentary “ The Edge of Democracy,” which debuts on Wednesday (19) on Netflix.
"Where will we gather strength to walk through the ruins and start over?,” asked Petra, who previously directed the award-winning film “Elena” (2012).
Petra documentary adds to the long list of film productions dedicated to telling the story of Brazil’s turbulent politics in recent years.
Other films incude "The Process", by Maria Augusta Ramos, and "Excelentíssimos", by Douglas Duarte.
The documentary includes footage from the June 2013 protests, the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff (PT) in 2016; former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) in 2018 imprisonment; and Jair Bolsonaro's (PSL) presidential victory in 2018.
The director also links her her personal history to politics. She is sometimes even in front of the camera. Petra does not hide her sympathy for leftist politics, but this does not prevent her from critcizing the the Lula and Dilma governments. The film, for example, talks about Dilma Rousseff’s mistakes in managing the country’s economy.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon