After debuting as a director with the fiction “My Name is Gal” (2023) –biopic of singer Gal Costa–, Dandara Ferreira launches this Thursday (July 2, 2026) the documentary “Anatomy of Chaos”. The film portrays the government (PL) during Covid-19, with never-before-seen behind-the-scenes images from the Covid-19 CPI (Parliamentary Inquiry Commission), in April 2021.
Dandara tells the Poder360 who, at the beginning of the pandemic, felt “fear, anguish and indignation like millions of Brazilians”. She then decided to go to Brasília alone “with a camera in my hand and not knowing what film it would be”. She followed all the commission’s work until the delivery of the final report, in October 2021. However, the filmmaker says that the film has many questions that have not yet been answered.
“I know of no more serious disrespect for life than the mockery of [então] president of the people who were out of breath. Trivialization of evil. Justice is what we need to wash our souls and move forward. I think the people deserve this reparation”he declares.
The film carrives in cinemas 3 months before the 1st round of , which will be on October 4th. SAccording to Dandara, the work was only ready in 2026 – more than 6 years after the first case of covid-19 in the country.
Despite its proximity to the election, she thinks the role of the documentary is to provoke reflection, not to tell people who to vote for. “If the film helps the public think more deeply about democracy, public responsibility, memory and crisis management, then it will have already served an important role.”he states.
Below, read the full interview:
Poder360 – Covid’s CPI was created in April 2021, more than 1 year after the start of the pandemic. When did you decide to film behind the scenes of the commission?
Dandara Ferreira – The decision to film came before the CPI. It was born out of indignation. I was following the progress of the pandemic, the growth in the number of deaths and the feeling of abandonment that took over the country. As a filmmaker, my way of reacting to the world is through the camera. When the CPI started, I realized that something very important was happening. For the first time, the country seemed to look at itself and ask: how did we get here? I went to Brasília alone with a camera in my hand and without knowing what film this would be. The story was being constructed at the same time as filming. I filmed without having all the answers, driven by the feeling that we were living through one of the most decisive chapters in recent Brazilian history.
What were the challenges of making a film about the pandemic during the pandemic?
The main challenge was dealing with the absence of historical distance. Normally, when we make a documentary, we look at events that have already ended. In the case of “Anatomy of Chaos”, reality changed every day. New deaths, new information, new contradictions. There was also a very strong emotional dimension. I was not a neutral observer. I was also living that experience, feeling fear, anguish and indignation like millions of Brazilians. The challenge was to transform this urgency into cinema, without losing the complexity of the facts or the humanity of the people involved. Filming during the pandemic was, in a way, trying to understand an earthquake while it was still happening. And I think for myself too, as a person from civil society, who was experiencing all that anguish too.
Scene from the film “Anatomy of Chaos” shows Simone Tebet (PSB), Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), Randolfe Rodrigues (PT-AP), Omar Aziz (PSD-AM) and Alessandro Vieira (MDB-SE) behind the scenes at Covid’s CPI
The documentary mixes unpublished testimonies with striking speeches from politicians, including when then-president Jair Bolsonaro says he is not a gravedigger. You also use images from Senate TV and various media outlets. What do you think it will be like for the public to revisit – and now see in the cinema – this traumatic period in our history?
I think it will be an emotionally intense experience. During the pandemic, we experienced events in a fragmented way: a piece of news here, a statement there, a number that increased daily on television. Cinema allows something different. It organizes this experience and offers perspective on it. Many people will recognize phrases, images and events that marked that period, but now inserted within a larger narrative. There is pain in this reunion, without a doubt. But I believe there is also a possibility of elaboration. A society needs to be able to look at its traumas to understand what happened and move forward. Forgetting has never been a healthy form of healing.
Last month, President Lula sanctioned the PL that established the National Day in Memory of the Victims of Covid-19. At the event, he demanded public accountability for those involved in managing the health crisis. Would your film also be a kind of charge?
I think, in a way, yes. When a film recovers facts, documents and testimonies, it inevitably forces us to confront questions about responsibility. Not just about who made decisions, but about what kind of society we want to build after a tragedy of this magnitude. The film has many questions that have not yet been answered. I don’t know of any more serious disrespect for life than the president’s mockery of people who were out of breath. Trivialization of evil. Justice is what we need to wash our souls and move forward. I think the people deserve this reparation.
More than 700,000 people have died from Covid-19 in Brazil; in the image, a scene from the documentary “Anatomy of Chaos”, which portrays Jair Bolsonaro’s management during the pandemic
Like this “The Process”by Maria Augusta Ramos, and the films by Petra Costa, the “Anatomy of Chaos” is a documentary that portrays a very recent history of Brazil. In fiction, for example, we have “I’m Still Here” e “The Secret Agent” addressing the period of military dictatorship. How do you see the relationship between cinema and politics? Do you think people’s interest in this type of film has grown?
All cinema, in a way, is political, even when it doesn’t talk directly about governments or elections. A film is always a way of looking at the world, of choosing what to show and what to leave out of the frame. In times of crisis, this dimension becomes more evident. I think there is a growing interest in films that try to understand Brazil because we are living in a period of very profound transformations. People seek narratives that help organize the collective experience. At the same time, cinema does not offer simple answers, but creates spaces for reflection. Perhaps this is what explains the strength of recent documentaries and also fiction that revisit traumatic periods in our history. There is a need for society to understand the past to understand the present.
The film “Anatomy of Chaos” shows testimonies from people who lost family members during the pandemic, as was the case of Márcio Antônio Silva, who spoke to the commission about the death of his son
The film will be released 3 months before the 1st round of the presidential elections. Was this release date planned? Can it exert some kind of influence on people?
This film was supposed to be released last year, but it wasn’t ready. And it ended up being married in the election year. We were careful to launch it in the 2nd semester, already during the election period. I often say that films know when to be released. Sometimes, we struggle, but they are “born” in their moment. I don’t think the role of the documentary is to tell people who to vote for. The role of the documentary is to offer elements for reflection. If the film helps the public think more deeply about democracy, public responsibility, memory and crisis management, then it will have already fulfilled an important function.
How important is it for this film to premiere in theaters before hitting a streaming platform?
The pandemic was experienced in a deeply lonely way. Many people faced fear, grief and isolation inside their homes. Cinema offers the opposite possibility: bringing strangers together in the same room to share a common experience and memory. There is something very powerful about watching this film surrounded by other people, hearing the reactions, feeling the silences, realizing that the story doesn’t just belong to you. She belongs to the country. Before being content, this film is an experience of collective memory. And there is no better place for that than a movie theater.
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