After the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Olinda — a city on the outskirts of Recife, Brazil, whose fate was then overseen by the country’s first communist woman mayor — became known as the first city in the world to bankrupt a McDonald’s. “A McFilm by Douglas Henrique,” the credits read. With fries sauce, by the way.
What do the Cold War, Brazilian municipal elections and a few Big Macs have in common? Through an impressive work of archival research, Douglas Henrique resurrects, with humor and irony, the near-mythical Battle of Olinda, when two women from opposing political parties vied for control of the “unofficial capital of Brazil.” Between electoral strategies, collective imaginaries and promises of progress, we uncover the mechanisms behind the first-ever bankruptcy of a McDonald’s restaurant in the world. It is the early 2000s, yet the escalation of violence in public debate already proves inescapable, revealing what now shapes the course of global politics. (Pedro Gonçalves Ribeiro)
