SAO PAULO (AP) — The Brazilian government on Monday criticized Oscar-nominated filmmaker Petra Costa after he said president Jair Bolsonaro is a risk to the country’s democracy. Costa’s 2016 documentary on the impeachment of former President Dilma Rousseff, “The Edge of Democracy,” has been praised by the left and heavily criticized by conservatives in this nation of deep political divisions.
Prior to the ceremony in which his film is nominated for best documentary on February 9, Costa spoke to public television PBS and again accused Bolsonaro of encouraging “farmers and fellers to invade indigenous reserves, to burn and deforsstate the Amazon , which is already at a critical point and could become a savannah.” He also reiterated his accusation that the Brazilian representative has attacked the rights of minorities. Costa made similar statements prior to his nomination, but this time the Brazilian government chose to respond through one of its official social media channels.” Filmmaker Petra Costa played the role of an anti-Brazilian activist and stained the country’s image abroad with a series of fake news in an interview with US television,” said the presidency’s communications secretary in several tweets in English and Portuguese.” Without the slightest sense of respect for her homeland and for the Brazilian people, Petra said in an unreasonable libretto that the Amazon would soon become a savannah and that President Bolsonaro orders the murder of African-Americans and homosexuals,” he added. Bolsonaro has also criticized the 36-year-old filmmaker’s documentary. When he was a lawmaker he was a strong supporter of Rousseff’s impeachment, and by voting for him to be defensive, he is remembered for celebrating the man who tortured her during the country’s military dictatorship. Costa did not immediately respond to a request for comment made by The Associated Press.In the documentary, the Brazilian director uses her own personal story to insinuate that the abrupt end of the Labour Party’s 13-year rule was accompanied by the desire to establish an autocracy similar to that of the 1964-1985 dictatorship.
