(1985) is less a film and more a prophetic fever dream. Directed by Terry Gilliam (of Monty Python fame), it’s a surreal, claustrophobic, and bitterly funny vision of a retro-futuristic bureaucracy run amok. The title itself is an ironic joke: the film has nothing to do with the country. Rather, it’s named after the hauntingly optimistic song “Brazil” (by Ary Barroso), which plays throughout as a cruel counterpoint to the grim reality on screen.
On December 31, 1985, Brazil looked radically different than it had on January 1. They had elected a savior and watched him die. They had traded a general for a poet-turned-politician (Sarney wrote modernist fiction) who didn't trust his own shadow. The economy was a magic trick without a magician. Brazil -1985-
The Year the Dream Died: Brazil in 1985 and the Death of the Second Republic (1985) is less a film and more a prophetic fever dream
