O processo

The Trial
The impeachment and removal from office of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in 2016 was triggered by a corruption scandal involving, among others, her then vice-president Michel Temer. Director Maria Augusta Ramos follows the trial against Rousseff from the point of view of her defence team. This is a courtroom drama that unfolds slowly; the appearances of the various parties gradually turn the proceedings into something akin to theatre. Inside the courtroom, grand emotions are played to full effect whilst, on the other side of the doors, lobbyists and supporters pace the corridors. Meanwhile, outside, in front of Brasília’s modernist government buildings, demonstrators are chanting like a Greek chorus. Only the main character, Dilma Rousseff herself, remains professional and aloof.
Following her award-winning documentaries Justiça and Juízo, in which Ramos scrutinised the Brazilian judicial system, she now turns her analytical gaze on the predominantly politically motivated trial against Dilma Rousseff. Her wholly observational film is without commentary; it shows the structures of power, the grandstanding as well as the smaller, rarely seen details.
by Maria Augusta Ramos
with Dilma Rousseff, Jose Eduardo Cardozo
Brazil / Germany / Netherlands 2018 Portuguese 137’ World premiere | Documentary form

With

  • Dilma Rousseff
  • Jose Eduardo Cardozo

Crew

Written and Directed by Maria Augusta Ramos
Cinematography Alan Schvarsberg
Editing Karen Akerman
Sound Design Bernardo Uzeda
Sound Marta Lopes
Executive Producer Maria Augusta Ramos
Producer Maria Augusta Ramos
Co-Producers Paulo de Carvalho, Gudula Meinzolt, Wout Conijn
Co-Production Autentika Films Berlin
Canal Brasil Rio de Janeiro
Conijn Film Amsterdam

Produced by

Nofoco Filmes Produções Cinematográficas

Maria Augusta Ramos

Born in Brasilia in 1964, she is a Brazilian-Dutch documentary filmmaker who studied at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in Amsterdam. Her films have screened at international festivals and won a number of awards. In 2013 the Board of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights awarded her the Marek Nowicki Prize for her entire oeuvre and her outstanding engagement with the topic of human rights via the medium of film.

Filmography (selection)

2004 Justiça (Justice); documentary 2007 Juízo (Behave); documentary 2013 Morro dos pazeres (Hill of Pleasures); documentary 2015 Seca (Drought); documentary · Futuro Junho (Future June); documentary 2018 O processo (The Trial); documentary, Panorama

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2018