All around the winds of change are blowing as far-right politicians, dictators, and authoritarian figures are taking control. Once in power, claiming to be the true voice of the people, they forcefully speak out against their opposition. The victim in all this can sometimes be democracy itself.
Petra Costa, the director of this hard-hitting documentary, covers decades of Brazilian political and social history leading up to the efforts of Jair Bolsonero, a military officer and far-right populist, to dismantle the Worker's Party led by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and later Dilma Rousseff who had been brutally tortured by the military dictatorship in the 1970s.
There is a very personal dimension to The Edge of Democracy after director Costa admits that while growing up her parents were militants who eventually fled into exile. That is why she had direct access to the dirty tricks and harsh treatment of Bolsonero and Rousseff who were both charged with scandals tied to construction contracts and campaign financing.
Sound familiar? As we approached the finale of this sad portrait of Brazilian corruption, dirty tricks, scandals, and politicians' power plays, a question lingered in the back of our minds — where are all the leaders?