Apocalyps in the Tropics
Terrifying account of the rise and enormous political influence of evangelical fundamentalism in Brazil. TV evangelists and ultraconservative politicians seem to be leading the country toward a theocracy, with sometimes fatal consequences.
Festival IDFA
Location Rabozaal
Run time 131 minutes
Genre Film
Dutch premiere
Apocalyps in the Tropics
Evangelical fundamentalism is rapidly on the rise in Brazil, with popular TV evangelists calling on their supporters to back ultraconservative presidential candidates whose campaign promises are focused on banning abortion rights and gender neutral toilets.This religious influence dragged the country to its lowest point during the pandemic, when, rather than importing vaccines and oxygen, the Bolsonaro government called on the population to pray harder. The result was a record 700,000 Covid-related deaths. Filmmaker Petra Costa previously made the Oscar-nominated documentary The Edge of Democracy (2019), about the global growth of polarization and extreme political violence.
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In this film she looks at whether Brazil is headed toward becoming a theocracy. She speaks, for example, with the country’s current president Lula, and with TV evangelist Silas Malafaia, who helped Bolsonaro to victory in 2018. His apocalyptic theology provides an alarming backdrop to news footage of mass political and religious gatherings, in an urgent and exemplary portrait of a young democracy that’s hanging on by a thread.
ABOUT IDFA
IDFA strives to strengthen the international documentary climate by focusing more than ever on documentary film as an art form. This focus includes documentary films with an original visual language or structure, films that show lesser-known cultures or are filmed from a non-Western perspective, and interactive or immersive documentaries that innovate the field.
