This film, released in Netflix recently, has come at the right time when Bolsonaro is on trial for his apocalyptic attempts to overthrow the elected government of President Lula and assassinate political leaders and and judges in 2023.
It brings out the collusion of evangelical leaders in the anti-democratic conspiracies of Bolsonaro. Today, the evangelicals, representing 30% of the population, have become a powerful political force.
Evangelism, which originated in the US was pushed into Brazil as part of the strategy of the US war on communism to counter the “ghost” of Communism.
They have become a serious rival to Catholicism in the largest catholic country in the world.
Evangelicals have systematically used their influence on their followers to gain political power and personal benefits. They advise the voters openly whom to vote for or against. The evangelical pastor Silas Malafaia had helped the campaign of Bolsonaro. Malafaia had been working even harder to defeat Lula and the Workers Party. Some of the evangelical pastors openly called for military to intervene and overthrow the elected government of President Lula. They had encouraged their followers to attack the Congress, the Presidential palace and the Supreme Court on 8 January to facilitate the coup planned by Bolsonaro.
Malafaia and many other pastors have become millionaires and even billionaires. They own private jets, live in luxury and make pilgrimages to Miami for shopping and entertainment. They have built business empires with publications, TV channels, and music among other ways of making money.
The evangelicals have now become a formidable force in the politics, culture and social parts of the Brazilian society. Even Lula has admitted that he needed to reach out to the Evangelicals for votes.
Petra Costa, the talented Brazilian film director, has directed the documentary in her own inimitable style. She had earlier directed another brilliant documentary “ The edge of democracy”. She has let the camera speak to the audience directly and has made the audience to think and reflect, with thought provoking and profound commentaries.
Costa opens the film with the images and videos of construction work for building the new capital Brasilia in the sixties. Her opening commentary, “ Brasilia was designed as a vision of Brazil’s future based on a desire to break with the centuries old Catholic colonial tradition and replace it with a modernist vision of equality and justice. The cement that held the buildings of the three pillars of democracy (the Congress, the Presidency and the Supreme Court) was a faith…not in God..but instead in the equality of progress and democracy”.
Costa recalls her 2016 visit to the Brazilian Congress when she encountered the dramatic rise of Evangelicals within the legislature. The evangelicals got an opening to wield their clout when the country was going through political instability and economic crisis. The evangelicals brought their advocacy and agenda from the pulpits into the Congress with issues such as abortion, rights of gays and minorities. They turned viciously against the Left taking advantage of the imprisonment of Lula and impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. They worked closely with the far-right extremist Bolsonaro and helped him to come to power. When he lost the re-election, the Evangelicals would not accept. They joined forces with the Bolsonarists in the coup attempts.
The documentary ends with the images and videos of the destruction and damage of the buildings of the Congress, Presidency and the Supreme Court and the collection of cement debris and broken glass pieces by the workers. Her final poignant commentary, “Apocalypse does not mean the end of the world. It is an unveiling, a revelation, and a chance to open our eyes”.
The documentary not only opens the eyes of the Brazilians but also those in the rest of the world which has witnessed the apocalyptic attempts of Trump to hold on to power after losing reelection in January 2021. He had set an example to Bolsonaro by inciting his rogue followers to attack the Capitol Hill on 6 January 2021 in Washington DC.
The documentary has enough evidence to convict not only Bolsonaro and his military accomplices but even Malafaia and his dangerous ilk. They have incriminated themselves openly and unambiguously with their own anti-democratic and pro-coup statements and incitements to violence. There is no need for any more evidence.
God save Brazil …from the extremist Evangelicals and their far-right political accomplices.
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