1984. 40 years down the road during the final days of the military regime, the then liberated political parties were planning their
conventions to the elect the new president of Brazil after 20 years of military presidents. The military party ARENA was extinct and splintered into several
parties (PDS was one of them), MDB was still strong as the opposition, new ones like PT and old ones like PDT, PTB returned to surface, and the
question was: To whom they'll support as next president and what kind of coalition can exist as everybody was hungry for power in such return to
democracy? The new establishment of Tancredo Neves or a small variation of the same military scheme disguised with a suit in Paulo Maluf?
"Muda Brasil" ("Change Brazil") offers an extensive closer look to the men behind the campaigns returning to democracy, the expectations from all sides in
this new democracy and the power plays in the political corridors, along with the countless rallies from MDB and PDS. If you know Brazilian
politics, be ready to watch all the familiar faces from the period, the dead and the alive (and still significant in Brasília).
It's often said that its pitiful and pointless to have nostalgia for a time one hasn't lived. But looking back at the dynamics from the
congressmen, senators and other politicians, their way of conducting business with polite talks with reporters or among themselves, and how
there were some genuine feelings of hope and to change things for the better, that it's completely different than what the political game has
become. Today is all about hatred, heated arguing and zero respect for different points of views, so whenever I look at those documentaries
reflecting the transitional political period, with the electoral college choosing Tancredo and the crowd was colorful, hopeful and dreamy, it makes
me wonder how wrong we got with the twists and turns ever since. A quote from senator/future vice-president Marco Maciel makes it all look bizarre
to imagine when he says that Brazilian people are mostly center when it comes to politics, no right or left. Barely he knew the reality of it all,
and how it rolls 40 years later.
But if that apparently hopeful reality and the politics are not your cup of tea, watch it for the funny unusual bits: Maluf responding
reporters about a potential lawsuit brought by Antônio Carlos Magalhães, with the same response all the time ("contact my lawyer") and look at the
reporters mood changing from serious to amusing is the unexpected highlight of it all. Say what you want about the man, but he knew how to spin
things favorably with a full confidence and charm the crowd. The annoyed Navy admiral running away from reporters and saved by a general is
hilarious too.
Why watch this now or in the future? To understand where society was and what they wanted, to establish comparisons, see what's changed
and if there are things to accomplish (the progresses and what remains the same). But if there's a needed audience that should revisit this are
the ones in the political field: the old ones to see what they were (if bad, change it); the new ones to seek a little of how they can be. 8/10.
