Netflix announced December 5 its release in 2025 of Petra Costa’s current Oscar® contender Apocalypse in The Tropics. The collaboration follows on from the Brazilian director’s Academy Award-nominated The Edge of Democracy (2029), a Netflix Original, which gained an Academy Award nomination in the Documentary Feature category in 2020.
The logline of Apocalypse in The Tropics reads: When does a democracy end, and a theocracy begin? The film investigates the increasingly powerful grip that evangelical Christian leaders hold over politics in Brazil. Weaving together past and present, the film holds a mirror up to the rest of the world.
Apocalypse in The Tropics is written and directed by Costa, and co-written with David Barker, Alessandra Orofino, Nels Bangerter and Tina Baz. It is produced by Alessandra Orofino for Peri Productions and Petra Costa for Busca Vida Filmes in association with Impact Partners, Play/Action Pictures, Luminate, Plan B/KM Films.
The film was an Official Selection at the Venice, Telluride, New York Film, Camden International, IDFA, Chicago International, and Montclair Festivals.
As Business Doc Europe reported when Apocalypse in the Tropics world-premiered at Venice 2024, the film’s genesis can be traced back to the politically-motivated impeachment of former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff in 2016. When Costa entered the Congress building to witness the process of arraignment, what she encountered instead was a group of right-wing evangelicals blessing the seats of the lawmakers, invoking the Lord to guide them in their deliberations.
Costa tells how, later, mere yards from the same building, she observed a public declaration by some of the country’s leading tele evangelists, led by the charismatic Silas Malafaia, that “God should take over the three branches of power,” namely the executive, the legislative and the judiciary. They were disciples of Dominion Theology, a creed which underlines that Christians should control all aspects of society, from family life to the economy, all the way to government itself.
Costa’s subsequent film revolves around three core protagonists; then-president Bolsonaro; the evangelist Malafaia, and Workers Party leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who was jailed for 18 months in 2017/18 on corruption charges, and who regained the presidency in 2022 by a narrow margin.
“I am thrilled that Apocalypse in the Tropics has found its home on Netflix,” Costa commented on the streamer deal. “We worked on this documentary for four years because we believe the erosion of democracy is the most crucial issue we face. In our story, we look at what happens in Brazil as a fable of our times. I know from our experience with The Edge of Democracy that Netflix cares deeply for the filmmakers they work with and will help this story reach a global audience provoking a much-needed conversation.”
