Neo-Authoritarian Masculinity in Brazilian Crime Film

“Presents an exquisite analysis of cinematic strategies of Brazilian cinema today, masterfully connecting films to the idea of a constructed hypermasculinity. The book raises important points about Brazil’s current sociopolitical turn to the extreme right.”—Emanuelle K. F. Oliveira-Monte, author of Writing Identity: The Politics of Contemporary Afro-Brazilian Literature

“An ambitious and theoretically sophisticated study. This veritable tour de force promises to be a reference for years to come on Brazilian contemporary film, violence, and masculinities.”—Kathryn Bishop-Sanchez, author of Creating Carmen Miranda: Race, Camp, and Transnational Stardom

“Important and highly original. Through impressive close analyses of cinematic form and techniques in recent mainstream crime films in Brazil, Lehnen demonstrates how cinema can work to actively produce and circulate neo-authoritarian masculinity couched in violence as a dominant discursive social practice.”—Andrew C. Rajca, author of Dissensual Subjects: Memory, Human Rights, and Postdictatorship in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay

“Lehnen boldly argues that this particular genre of Brazilian cinema was partially responsible for dictator-in-the-making Jair Bolsonaro. Through a broad overview of Brazilian crime film since cinema novo and deep, nuanced readings of popular and/or acclaimed 21st-century classics . . .Lehnen provides the cinematic evidence to back up his argument. . . . Theoretically dense yet highly readable.”—Choice