The Edge of Democracy

2019 [PORTUGUESE]

Documentary / History

Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 97% · 36 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 68%
IMDb Rating 7.3/10 10 15417 15.4K

Plot summary

A cautionary tale for these times of democracy in crisis—the personal and political fuse to explore one of the most dramatic periods in Brazilian history. With unprecedented access to Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Lula da Silva, we witness their rise and fall and the tragically polarized nation that remains.



July 20, 2023 at 10:30 AM

Director

Petra Costa

Top cast

Barack Obama as Self
Queen Elizabeth II as Self
720p.WEB
1.09 GB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
24 fps
2 hr 1 min
P/S ...

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by matthewssilverhammer 7 / 10

"Democracy is only working when the rich feel threatened."

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.

Reviewed by rbmoraes 9 / 10

A personal yet solid narrative of a global phenomenon

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.

Reviewed by WanderleyG 8 / 10

Very emotional and personal perspective

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.

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