Petra Costa’s documentary tells a grim story about modern Brazil and leaves it up to us to decide if there is a happy ending. It is about the country’s leaders’ addiction to rightwing Christian fundamentalism and US-style prayer breakfasts, a strident political mannerism linked to the fact that evangelical Christians make up an estimated 30% of the population; it is on their behalf that Brazil’s religious right, via its substantial bloc vote in Congress, has now created what amounts to a minority-rule theocracy.
This movement was originally imported after the second world war through colossal enthusiasm for the ministry of Billy Graham, and it was covertly encouraged by the US government. The evangelists and their fellow travellers show a particular enthusiasm for the Book of Revelations, whose apocalyptic rhetoric is used to amplify and justify all manner of conspiracist, xenophobic screeching.
