Executive Order, part of the 2021 SXSW Film Festival lineup
Writer-director Lázaro Ramos takes an age-old racist threat and wonders how it’d look in real life in this Brazilian thriller about a government forcing its Black citizens to “go back to Africa.”
Antônio (Alfred Enoch), is a kindhearted but outspoken civil rights lawyer who sues the Brazilian government for monetary reparations to Black citizens, attempting to hold the state accountable for its violent history against the African slaves brought to the land centuries ago and their descendants still struggling today. The government retaliates with the “Return Yourself” initiative, paying to send all Black Brazilians to different countries in Africa against their will.