As an editor, I view the world through rhythm and structure, and what’s happening in Brazil right now is a terrifying montage of 20th-century authoritarianism. Several Brazilian Academy members, including Wagner Moura and Kleber Mendonça Filho, just released an open letter regarding the upcoming runoff between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro.

We saw what Jair did—dismantling the Ministry of Culture and freezing the Audiovisual Sector Fund. It wasn’t just a budget cut; it was a deliberate attempt to lobotomize a nation’s creative identity. Now Flávio is promising a new Constitution and 'Milei-style' austerity.

We shouldn't be 'neutral' observers here. When a state views art as 'cultural Marxism' rather than a vital industry, the creative class dies. If Flávio wins on the 25th, the most vibrant film industry in South America will be reduced to state-sanctioned propaganda or silence. As an Argentine watching my own country struggle under similar rhetoric, I see the pattern. It’s not 'liberty'; it’s the systematic erasure of the tools we use to tell our own stories. We need to stop pretending this is just 'politics as usual.'