‘SOFT COUP’ IN BRAZIL CREATES PROBLEMS ‘SOFT COUP’ IN BRAZIL FOR COUNTRY’S CREATES PROBLEMS FILMMAKERS FOR COUNTRY’S FILMMAKERS BY PATRICK BLAIR COPY EDITED BY NICOLE RICHARDSON
Over the summer, while the world was enjoying the festivities of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero, a political drama had been unfolding for months in Brazil. In May 2016, a conservative coalition of senators moved to impeach the country’s elected president, Dilma Rousseff of the Worker’s Party (PT), who had governed Brazil for over a decade. The move has been denounced as a “soft coup,” or a “parliamentary coup.” The official pretense was corruption and manipulation of budgets - a transparently cynical accusation, considering at least half of those who form the coalition that finally voted to impeach Dilma on August 31 are themselves embroiled in various corruption scandals. The unelected interim president, Michel Temer of the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, was acting as Dilma’s Vice president at the beginning of the impeachment process, before officially breaking their relationship in March when he joined a coalition of right-wing parties acting to remove the president. Temer assumed office unelected to extremely low approval ratings and angry protests. He saw three of his ministers ousted for corruption within a month of his administration. Temer himself and various other ministers of his and associates are implicated in receiving at least tens of millions of Brazilian reals in illegal contributions, among other accusations.
The consequences of this crisis are now being felt by the Brazilian film industry. At least two film projects from notable Brazilian filmmakers have been affected by the parliamentary coup. Aquarius, the latest film from acclaimed Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho (Neighboring Sounds, 2012), is one of these films. Mendonça and members of the cast and crew of Aquarius made the news during last spring’s Cannes Film Festival, where the film competed for the Palme d’Or and received glowing reviews. At a red carpet reception, the cast and crew protested the coup by holding placards for the media - with phrases like “Brazil is experiencing a coup d’etat,” and “The world cannot accept this illegitimate government” - echoing street demonstrators in their home country. Not only has the new unelected government given Aquarius an 18+ rating (virtually unheard of in Brazil), the country’s Ministry of Culture rejected the film to compete for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards. Instead it picked a film titled Little Secret, which was described by respected Brazilian film critic Alcino Leite Neto in the New York Times as “one of the worst films of Brazilian cinema in recent years,” an “ocean of clichés and sentimentalism.” When the film critic Marcus Petrucelli - who has publicly denounced Mendonça for his outspoken politics - was appointed to the film selection committee, the other Brazilian filmmakers competing for selection withdrew their films in solidarity with Aquarius. Mendonça told Variety that he was afraid the film would be “sabotaged by the illegitimate government,” and his fears have proven true.