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Infuriating and Gripping, Apocalypse in the Tropics Must Be Seen
Petra Costa’s documentary about the rise of Evangelicalism in Brazil resonates beyond that country’s borders.
To those of us in the United States, watching Apocalypse in the Tropics, Petra Costa’s transfixing documentary about the growth of Evangelical Christianity in Brazil, may feel at times like staring at a looking-glass version of the U.S. We’ll surely recognize the growing alliance between pastors and politicians, each spouting some form of millenarian and absolutist rhetoric. Much of Apocalypse in the Tropics(which opens theatrically today and will premiere on Netflix Monday, July 14) follows Silas Malafaia, an enormously popular right-wing Pentecostal pastor who over the years has courted the political class, establishing a clearly symbiotic relationship with power. Her own exploration of Christian dogma, elegantly expressed in the film via religious paintings, becomes one of the picture’s structuring elements, alongside the interwoven timelines of Evangelicalism’s rise over the decades and the 2022 election that saw the recently imprisoned Lula defeat Bolsonaro.
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