Secret Friend

AMIGO SECRETO

Brazil, Netherlands, Germany, 2022, 101'

The anti-corruption operation Lava Jato was one of the most controversial political and judiciary cases in Brazil’s history. Former president Lula da Silva, who at the moment of his conviction still enjoyed great popularity in electoral surveys, was arrested, triggering several disputes, especially when the same judge who had investigated the case, Sergio Moro, was appointed Minister of Justice by Lula’s victorious contender at the 2018 presidential elections, i.e., right-wing extremist Jair Bolsonaro. The investigations conducted by journalists from The Intercept and El Pais Brasil revealed that the important anti-corruption operation was misused by the Brazilian right-wing to discredit political opponents.
After meticulously reconstructing the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff in O Processo, Maria Augusta Ramos describes one of the most sensational lawfare cases of the past few years by putting the viewer to the side of the journalists who have investigated the case, following them during the process of discovery. Secret Friend is an investigative film characterized by great rigour, animated by the decision to uphold the importance of independent press in front of the mechanisms of erosion of contemporary democracies.