Democracia em Vertigem

The documentary offers a very intimate view on the events surrounding the last decade of Brazil's democracy.

It shows some background on the historical political forces that dominate the country but fails to present a broad perspective of the context. It's clear though that this was never the objective when the narrator presents itself with her views. The documentary does very good at reminding us and offering a more static showcase of the ongoing forces that threatened democracy in an attempt to circumvent investigations and save themselves.

I had more expectations related to the informative content as I'm a native myself and the actual playtime of the documentary being a bit long but i won't say I'm frustrated.

I concluded it's a good resumé for foreign audiences to understand the current events in Brazil and a very intimate display of the effects of a political crysis in a borderline democracy.

This passionately angry doc (with incredible access) proves that partisan politics is a human thing, NOT just a USA thing...and I can't decide if that's a relieving or disheartening.

Documentary extremely important to our perception of democracy and how it has been elitist and oligarchic in Brazil. The Documentary presents facts, and makes us realize how recent history unfortunately tends to follow and perpetuate the old models. It causes reflection on the importance of democratic acts, on the construction of self-opinions, and on how we are still vulnerable to being induced by the medium and a numerically small but great perceive of privileges. My sincerest congratulations to the entire production.

Skilfully merging the political with the personal, The Edge of Democracy provides an interesting insight into the 2014 socio-political crisis which ripped Brazil apart, and paved way for a situation where the country can now slide back into the very oppressive system it fought so hard and for so long to overcome.

Co-written, co-produced & directed by Petra Costa, the documentary establishes her political leanings early on by offering some background context that shaped her worldview and then narrates the events that led to her nation's current state by taking us through the rise & fall of two presidencies. But it isn't an impartial take.

When seen from an outside perspective, the documentary serves as a warning for numerous other democracies around the world whose fabric is both threatened & failing, including my own. Costa allows the plot to unfold at an unhurried pace so viewers can take in all the information but it only manages to be riveting in bits n pieces.

Overall, The Edge of Democracy is an extensively researched & brilliantly narrated documentary but it is also diluted by the filmmaker's own political preference and is going to polarise many. Nonetheless, it does rather well as a cautionary tale and paints an unnerving portrait of the future that's in store when the foundations on which a nation functions are ignored.

This movie is a very personal account of Brazil's latest years of democracy. The narrative is beautifully constructed, interweaving past and more recent footage of what becomes the director's memories - it's actually narrated by her, as if she was showing someone a photo album or as if she was recounting a dream (or a nightmare, you decide).

Some people will say it's a biased, leftist portrait of events. Others will say it portrays the lamentable political coup that led to presidents Dilma Rousseff's impeachment and Lula's imprisonment and the rise of the far-right politics in Brazil.

Maybe both sides are right. It portrays a contemporary yet not domestic phenomenon: the pollarization of politics - the divergence of political attitudes to ideological extremes - which seems to be happening in different parts of the world (see the U.S.A, for example).

On a personal note, this movie touched me deeply and I couldn't help but think that politics no longer (if ever) means to serve society, but personal interests. Politcs has become a disclosed, shameless power play. And how does the population witness it? Some people stopped thinking about purpose and started rooting for the players.

In that sense, this movie is about dreams: it doesn't matter who wins. If we don't start making smart choices, everyone's going to lose. I just hope people wake up in time.