The Edge of Democracy
Feature length film Completed 2017
Director
Petra Costa
Doc Society helped with
Production
An epic tragedy of corruption and betrayal, IMPEACHMENT is a behind-the-scenes look at the ousting of Brazil’s first female president, Dilma Rousseff. With privileged access to the president and other key politicians, the film unravels like a political thriller as Brazil falls into disarray, echoing the undoing of so many democracies throughout the world.
Crew
This works very well as both a primer on the tumultuous last several years of Brazilian politics and also as a very passionate personal essay film.
FilmWeek
June 14, 2025
Costa manages to craft an intimate primer about the state's descent into populism and the fraying of the country's democratic fabric.
Guardian
June 21, 2025
[Petra Costa] seems utterly incapable of crafting a frame that is lacking in urgency or vibrance.
RogerEbert.com
June 20, 2019
An angry, intimate, and haunting portrait of Brazil's recent slide back into the open jaws of dictatorship.
IndieWire
June 18, 2019
Directed by Petra Costa, this completely fascinating documentary provides an unexpectedly compelling inside look at the political earthquakes that have been roiling Brazil for several years.
Los Angeles Times
June 18, 2019
It's a chronicle of civic betrayal and the abuse of power, and also of heartbreak.
New York Times
June 18, 2019
This is documentary cinema in which facts tangle compellingly with feeling, while passages of solemn, stately mood-building split the difference.
Variety
April 26, 2019
A powerful document of a wave of nationalism sweeping both Europe and the Americas in recent years.
TheWrap
Feb. 4, 2019
A deeply felt rumination on a troubled political scene.
The Hollywood Reporter
July 26, 2025