Dark Horse: Bolsonaro Biopic's Revisionist Script and Questionable Funding

The English-language biopic 'Dark Horse,' dramatizing the life of jailed former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, premiered privately in Las Vegas during the Fraud Fighter Summit, a MAGA gathering. Directed by US filmmaker Cyrus Nowrasteh and co-written with his son Mark and former Brazilian culture secretary Mário Frias, the film stars Jim Caviezel as Bolsonaro. The script is shockingly revisionist, omitting the 2022–23 coup plot that led to Bolsonaro's 27-year prison sentence, and includes bizarre fictionalizations. Funding is murky: reporting by The Intercept Brasil revealed that Bolsonaro's eldest son, Flávio, solicited $24 million from disgraced banker Daniel Vorcaro, who sent $10.6 million between February and May 2025. Vorcaro is at the center of a $2.2 billion fraud case involving his liquidated lender Banco Master. The film's reported $13.3 million budget seems inflated given modest production values and reports of poor set conditions. Brazil's Federal Police suspect Vorcaro's money was used to support Eduardo Bolsonaro, self-exiled in Texas. The film aims at US audiences, with Steve Bannon reportedly promoting it to energize the American right before November midterms. Lead actor Caviezel claims a release date of September 11. The film may lay groundwork for US interference in Brazil's October elections, framing Bolsonaro's 2022 defeat as rigged. However, its distributor Europa Filmes plans to premiere only after the vote.