A gripping documentary on the life and murder of worker and political activist Manuel Fiel Filho, "Perdão Mister Fiel" ("Sorry Mister Fiel) presents an overview of
the dictatorship in Brazil (1964-1985) where even civilian people with minor political inclinations could be viewed as subversive and needed to be dealt
with repressive brutality.
Fiel was one of those rare exceptions but with his prison, torture and murder the public perception of things and events about
the government started to change drastically, specially after reporter Vladimir Herzog's death in similar circumstances in 1975, and with those and other
events little by little the political forces of opposition, the church and the workers union movements started to build up momentum and began protesting
(not that it hadn't had before, but it was always things fought with a great deal deal of repression).
The documentary presents Fiel's story as told by many talking heads and also there's some re-enactment with actors. Interviewed people includes Fiel's
widow and his daughter, former minister of Justice Jarbas Passarinho, former presidents Lula and Fernando Henrique Cardoso - both very active figures during
the lead years - , and Marivaldo Chaves, a former DOI-CODI agent (Operation Center of Information, used by the military and an institution where Fiel was arrested)
who provides a great deal of information about how they worked and operated back in the day (his interview is amazing and very detailed, although he wasn't
involved in the Fiel affair).
So, here we have the full scope of the man's activities supporting left-wing groups, far from the urban guerrilas, it was more of a brainy work of
politics but somehow the forces of repression got word of his activities and started harassing him at work (on a factory) and then he got arrested and
tortured. Like Herzog, his death caused a major uproar and a wave of protests began in the late 1970's all the way to the protests for wide amnesty.
I almost forgot this part which actually opens the movie and relates with the title. One of the great interesting topics brought by the movie relates to the American intervention in Brazil and supporting the regime. In the opening scenes, countless images of similar interventions by the U. S. around the globe are presented - and much later on the movie establishes their infliuence in military operations in Latin America dictatorships and somehow it all connects with Fiel.
It's an honest presentation of facts and also a real view about the period where the divisible lines were crossed and sometimes things would get to
a point of no return, thanks to a regime that didn't allow anything against them. There are plenty of informative interviews, all of that are very detailed
about the period or in the case of Fiel's family we have details of when the police returned his body to his family. The only let down of this film are the
acting bits, which is a turn-off, strangely acted and I'm not much fan of docuemntaries who tend to make re-enactments. Either you go full fictional or
full documentary (Errol Morris "The Thin Blue Line" is a deep exception to the rule and it's actually a very fine movie). Other than that, if you're into
history and it's familiar with the events depicted here this is a real must-see. 9/10.
