Review: ‘Edge of Democracy’ Looks at Brazil With Outrage and Heartbreak

"What happened? The question haunts this film and will likely haunt many of its viewers, wherever they happen to be watching. Though she is a scrupulous and dogged digger-up of hidden facts and a thoughtful interpreter of public events, Costa hasn’t produced a work of objective journalism or detached historical scholarship so much as a personal reckoning with her nation’s past and present. “The Edge of Democracy” is narrated in the first person, by the filmmaker herself (in English in the version under review, which is streaming on Netflix) in a voice that is by turns incredulous, indignant and self-questioning. It’s a chronicle of civic betrayal and the abuse of power, and also of heartbreak"

READ REVIEW BY A. O. SCOTT