“The Trial” glances behind the scenes of one of the biggest political crises of the decade which ended with the dismissal by Parliament of Brazil’s first woman president, Dilma Rousseff. Director Maria Augusta Ramos traces several storylines during the long-winded campaign meant to undermine her position, delivering a riveting thriller with a known conclusion, but with plenty of sensational and unpredictable hurdles along the way – procedural, media-related or even of a mystical nature. The circumstances of the Rousseff crisis are as complicated as they are dangerous to Brazillian democracy.  The filmmaker tries to maintain an ethical balance between the two opposing political forces, between the will of Parliament and the will of the people, between the ridiculous turn sometimes taken in the debates and the gravity of the situation. The end result is an effervescent and sad film about how power reaches a point when it stops considering the possibility that, after the fight has ended, it might annihilate not only its political adversaries, but also itself and everything around it. (Andrei Rus)