{"id":27753,"date":"2025-06-30T18:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T18:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/27753\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T18:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T18:11:10","slug":"apocalypse-in-the-tropics-exclusive-trailer-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/27753\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Apocalypse In The Tropics’ Exclusive Trailer Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE:<\/strong> When does a democracy end, and a theocracy begin? That\u2019s the key question in Oscar-nominated filmmaker Petra Costa<\/a>\u2019s urgent new documentary Apocalypse in the Tropics<\/a>, set to open in select theaters in the U.S. and UK on July 11, and in Brazil this Thursday, and premiering worldwide on Netflix<\/a> on July 14.<\/p>\n

\n\tCosta\u2019s film doesn\u2019t focus on, say, Iran or Afghanistan \u2013 where theocratic control of government has become a norm \u2014 but in a place where separation of church and state is enshrined in the constitution: her native Brazil. That idea, central to Brazilian democracy and American tradition as well, is coming under increasing threat from the rise of Christian nationalism<\/a>. In Christian nationalist thinking \u2013 surging in Brazil and the U.S. \u2013 an avenging Jesus from out of the Book of Revelations suits up for battle with his opponents, eager to spill blood to achieve God\u2019s will. Secular government be damned.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe have your first look at the Oscar-contending film in the trailer above.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn Apocalypse in the Tropics, director Petra Costa takes us on a decade-long journey through the spiritual and political upheaval of Brazil,\u201d explains a synopsis. \u201cWhat begins as a search for signs of life in a fragile democracy transforms into a deeper inquiry into the seductions of power, prophecy and belief. Costa gains extraordinary access to current President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, former President Jair Bolsonaro and the nation\u2019s magnetic televangelist Silas Malafaia. More than a chronicle of political change, Apocalypse in the Tropics is a cinematic investigation of the fault lines that emerge when religion fuels political ambition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNetflix<\/p>\n

\n\tThe synopsis continues, \u201cWith the savage clarity that defined her Academy Award\u2013nominated The Edge of Democracy, Costa documents a time of kaleidoscopic confusion and fear with intimate observational filmmaking that braids together the personal, the historic and the mythic. As faith shifts from private refuge to public battleground, Brazil holds a mirror to a world where democracies are being tested by the power of prophecy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor anyone who might feel the film pertains just to Brazil, consider that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, is associated with Christian nationalism. So is influential Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth bears tattoos connected with the religious movement. The Supreme Court, with a Christian conversative supermajority, has proven increasingly amenable to inserting religion \u2013 particularly Christianity \u2013 into the public sphere. (In a 6-3 ruling last week, the court allowed parents to shield their children from lessons in public schools that they object to on religious grounds).<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Filmmaker<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tFilmmaker Petra Costa<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMatthew Carey<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a recent interview with Deadline, Costa commented on the Christian nationalist preoccupation with a violent Jesus who preaches \u201cthat you should kill your enemies and destroy your enemies, annihilate your enemies. The marriage between this Christian fundamentalism and the far right is incompatible with democracy because the main principle of democracy is that you have to coexist with your enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCosta noted, \u201cEven though the United States is the first nation to have to declare the separation of church and state, it\u2019s also the first to create such a deliberate movement to infuse politics with Christianity and mobilize its followers into these culture wars that are now having their apex\u2026 When I look at the history of American politics through the lens of what I\u2019ve discovered in making this film, it\u2019s as if the foundation of MAGA and what you\u2019re seeing of Trump\u2019s government now is the moral majority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"An<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAn image from \u2018Apocalypse in the Tropics\u2019 with an illustration from the Book of Revelations<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNetflix<\/p>\n

\n\tApocalypse in the Tropics premiered last September at the Venice Film Festival and made its North American premiere at Telluride. It has screened at other prestigious festivals around the world, including San Sebasti\u00e1n, Hot Springs in Arkansas, Camden in Maine, Zurich, IDFA in the Netherlands, CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, Millennium Docs Against Gravity in Poland, Palm Springs, DC\/DOX and many others.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe documentary is written and directed by Petra Costa and produced by Alessandra Orofino and Costa. Watch the trailer for Apocalypse in the Tropics above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: When does a democracy end, and a theocracy begin? That\u2019s the key question in Oscar-nominated filmmaker Petra…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[24063,24064,171,53,4659,24065,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-27753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-apocalypse-in-the-tropics","9":"tag-christian-nationalism","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-netflix","13":"tag-petra-costa","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114773668662822702","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}