Yahoo Lifestyle Netflix To Release Petra Costa’s Oscar-Contending Documentary ‘Apocalypse In The Tropics’
UPDATED to note this is an acquisition and that Apocalypse in the Tropics will be released as a Netflix Original and that the deal was brokered by Cinetic. Previously: Filmmaker Petra Costa is re-teaming with Netflix on her latest documentary, the award-winning Apocalypse in the Tropics.
The streamer today announced it has acquired Costa’s film and will release it as a Netflix Original in 2025, continuing a fruitful relationship with the director. Her previous documentary, 2019’s The Edge of Democracy, was a Netflix Original and went on to earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature. Cinetic brokered the acquisition deal for Apocalypse in the Tropics.
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The Edge of Democracy explored how Costa’s native Brazil emerged from military dictatorship in the mid-1980s, but then more recently saw fundamental tenets of democracy threatened by right wing elements who refused to honor the peaceful transition of power (a phenomenon that would be replayed in the U.S. after the 2020 presidential election). Apocalypse in the Tropics examines another threat to Brazilian democracy – the rise of Christian nationalism (a growing issue in the United States as well).
“The genesis of this investigation on the rise of religious fundamentalism in Brazil was while I was filming The Edge of Democracy, actually, where I arrived in Congress trying to understand what was happening to Brazilian democracy, in the middle of the impeachment we had of our first female president, Dilma Rousseff,” Costa told Deadline at the Camden International Film Festival in Maine, where Apocalypse in the Tropics screened. “When I arrived in Congress, instead of finding congressmen discussing the issue at hand, I found them blessing the seat of Congress and speaking in tongues, led by a pastor and congressman. And, so, I asked him what was going to happen to Brazilian democracy, and he said that God would decide — it was all in God’s hand. And he asked me to accept Jesus and handed me a Bible. That was really a moment of awakening of the tectonic plates that were shaping Brazilian politics, which I was not aware of.”
Christian nationalist elements in the U.S. played a key role in the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, sports tattoos that feature “a tapestry of symbols widely embraced by Christian nationalists, including a Jerusalem cross on his chest, an American flag with 13 stars partly obscured by an assault weapon below his shoulder and the words ‘Deus Vult (‘God wills it’) on his biceps,” according to a report by the Guardian.
“I am thrilled that Apocalypse in the Tropics has found its home on Netflix,” Costa said in a statement. “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.”
Apocalypse in the Tropics is written and directed by Petra Costa. It is produced by Alessandra Orofino for Peri Productions and Petra Costa for Busca Vida Filmes, and produced in association with Impact Partners, Play/Action Pictures, Luminate, and Plan B/KM Films.
Co-writers of the film are David Barker, Alessandra Orofino, Nels Bangerter, and Tina Baz. Executive producers include Jenny Raskin, Jim & Susan Swartz, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Katrina vanden Heuvel and Meadow Fund for Impact Partners; Jeffrey Lurie and Marie Therese Guirgis for Play/Action Pictures; Felipe Estefan and Rafael Georges Zein for Luminate; Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner for Plan B Films; Katy Drake Bettner; Kate Hurwitz; InMaat Foundation; Frida Polli; James Costa, and Trevor Burgess.
Apocalypse in the Tropics premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September, going on from there to the Telluride Film Festival, Camden International Film Festival, Stockholm Film Festival, San Sebastián Film Festival, Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, São Paulo International Film Festival, and many others. It won two prizes at the Montclair Film Festival, including the David Carr for Truth in Non-Fiction Filmmaking.
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