When the Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho was writing his latest movie in 2021, he felt shame about the situation in his homeland as it took “a sharp turn to the right” under the then president, Jair Bolsonaro. “Well-informed friends … would pat you on the back and say ‘I feel for you’,” the film-maker recalls.
Four years later as the film hits big screens, Bolsonaro is out of the picture and Mendonça’s mood has changed. “I am very proud of what is happening in Brazil,” he says after recently seeing the far-right populist receive a 27-year prison sentence for masterminding a failed coup.
