O Paciente: O Caso Tancredo Neves

Political and medical thriller by Sérgio Rezende on the last days of elected president Tancredo Neves, who died by illness before taking office. It is well directed, well filmed and acted, and intewines interestingly those fictionalized scenes with documentary footage. What impresses the most is the remarkable performance of great Othon Bastos in the leading role. The script is based in the book of Luís Mir, who beings a very critical revisionist approach on the health treatment of Tancredo Neves, accusing the physicians of commiting several mistakes which worsened his health conditions until the death. In the film, particularly Francisco Pinheiro da Rocha, Renault Mattos Ribeiro, Gilberto Assis and the Hospital de Base de Brasília, and in a lesser extent also Walter Pinotti and João Baptista Rezende, are portrayed very badly. In relation to Tancredo Neves, the script is completely kind to him, always portraying him as a political man concerned only with the country and democracy. The aforementioned brilliant performance of Othon Bastos helps on convincing spectator on the truth of that biased view, as there was no intention by Rezende to address a discussion on the man before that last month and breath.