Federal Police investigate financing of Jair Bolsonaro biopic

This Thursday (10), the Federal Police launched an operation to investigate the financing of "Dark Horse", a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro.

Karina Gama, producer of the film, and federal deputy Mario Frias (PL-SP) are targets of the action. Two entities owned by Karina also have searches for agents: the Instituto Saber Brasil (ICB) and the Academia Nacional de Cultura (ANC).

According to the PF, investigations indicate the existence of a criminal organization that had diverted public resources from parliamentary amendments through payments made to NGOs.

What does 'Dark Horse' mean?

With an American director and protagonist, the film does not yet have a title in Portuguese. In English, "dark horse" is an expression used to refer to an "underdog": someone who enters a dispute with little chance of winning, but may surprise.

The meaning of the title matches the synopsis released by the website Deadline, which presents Bolsonaro as a discredited figure who contradicted expectations in his political trajectory:

"Inspired by true events, 'Dark Horse' follows Jair Bolsonaro, a controversial outsider who rises from an unknown army captain to populist leader in the presidential race in a deeply polarized Brazil, only to face a deadly assassination plot that turns his fight against a corrupt system into a battle for survival, truth and the soul of a nation."

The work's director, Cyrus Nowrasteh, also spoke about the concept.

"The story of Jair Bolsonaro's unlikely rise and the attack he suffered in 2018 served as the basis for investigating how far established systems can go to preserve themselves — and how a politician can become the receptacle of a nation's hopes and fears," he told Deadline.

Which artists are involved in the film?

The biography stars Jim Caviezel, who plays the former president, currently under house arrest for an attempted coup d'état. The 57-year-old American actor is best known for "The Passion of the Christ" (2004) and for appearing in more conservative films in recent years, such as "Sound of Freedom" (2023).

Directing is Cyrus Nowrasteh, a 69-year-old American filmmaker who has made films for TV, such as "After the Attack", and for cinema, such as "The Stoning of Soraya M.". He was already involved in a co-production between the United States and Brazil when writing the script for "Jenipapo" (1995) with director Monique Gardenberg.

He wrote the script for "Dark Horse" with Mark Nowrasteh, based on a script written by Mario Frias, actor and former Secretary of Culture during Bolsonaro's government.

The cast also includes Esai Morales ("Mission: Impossible"), Lynn Collins ("The Walking Dead"), Camille Guaty ("Duster") as Michelle Bolsonaro and Jeffrey Vincent Parise ("General Hospital").