‘Radioactive Emergency’ Director Talks Tackling ‘Brazilian Chernobyl’

Fernando Coimbra (‘Narcos,’ ‘Perry Mason’) was 11 years old when his country came to a halt to watch an unfolding tragedy that would come to be known as the “Brazilian Chernobyl.” Four decades later, the director landed the top spot on Netflix’s highly competitive global chart with “Radioactive Emergency,” a fast-paced series retracing the nuclear catastrophe. 

“Radioactive Emergency” is based on the real-life cesium-137 tragedy that took place in Goiânia, central Brazil, in 1987, when two men opened an abandoned cancer therapy machine while scavenging for metal. Inside, there was a puzzling, almost magical blue powder that glowed in the dark. Fascinated by their discovery, the men began sharing the substance among themselves, unaware that they were handling highly radioactive caesium chloride. Their discovery resulted in one of the world’s worst radioactive incidents not stemming from a nuclear power plant, with four direct fatal victims and over 100,000 screenings.

The Brazilian production was the most watched series amongst non-English titles on Netflix over March 23-29 with over 10.8 million views. It also reached the Top 10 in over 55 countries. “Radioactive Emergency” is produced by Gullane and created by Gustavo Lipsztein (“The Endless Night”). It stars Johnny Massaro (“The Son of a Thousand Men”), Paulo Gorgulho (“The Endless Night”), Bukassa Kabengele (“Warden”), and Antonio Saboia (“Bacurau”).

Elisabetta Zenatti, Netflix’s VP of content in Brazil, told Variety the series is a “powerful story that called for the care, talent and sensitivity of everyone involved.” “Nearly 40 years later, its deeply human themes remain relevant and have resonated around the world, offering moments of reflection for today’s society. We are honored that creator Gustavo Lipsztein brought us this story so close to his heart, and to play a part in ensuring the legacy of the victims and those who stepped up in the face of tragedy continues to endure.”

Veteran producer and Gullane founding partner Fabiano Gullane adds that the series has “brought a lot of pride” to his team, especially in how it is “so beautifully reaching Brazilian audiences who can reconnect with their history, as well as the strength the show has shown with international audiences.” “It’s important to showcase our human ability to collaborate and work together to save lives, and maybe this is a message the world was to hear in this moment when we are seeing the very opposite: wars and displacement.”

Speaking with Variety following the good news, Coimbra recalls the serendipity of being contacted by Gullane about the project after years of wanting to adapt the real-life story himself. “What I loved about the project was that there were so many points of view. You have the victims, the physicists, the doctors, the government… This was my contribution: to engage with the characters and understand who they are.”

Working together, Lipsztein and Coimbra decided to create a thriller with a pulsating human core, and getting the tone right from the pilot was key. “We had an idea to move everything that tells you what happens in the season from the pilot to the second episode, so the pilot is a method piece where, only at the end, you see the thing they are talking about, a little bit like in ‘Jaws’ [laughs].” 

Adapting a true story comes with its own set of challenges. To Coimbra, some key questions involved amalgamating real-life characters into fictionalized ones while still honoring victims and survivors, as well as faithfully recreating the look and feel of the time. “The way not to sensationalize this was to keep it very grounded and very real at all times,” he emphasizes. “We did a long preparation with these actors so the family could feel like a real family. I wanted to feel like this is the real world with real people, and the way to do that was to keep it very free and spontaneous. There is a lot of improvisation in the series, which makes it feel more vivid.”

When it comes to the look of the show, Coimbra highlights the ambition involved and praises his team of collaborators, including “I’m Still Here” cinematographer Adrian Tejido and “Futuro Beach” art director Marcos Pedroso. “The secret to getting it done was to hire the best professionals possible. Once you have these minds with you, it all starts coming together.”

Brazil has had a banner few years in cinema and television, with two films reaching multiple Oscar nominations in the last two years: Walter Salles’s “I’m Still Here” and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent.” Both films are set around a decade before “Radioactive Emergency” and deal with the country’s collective memory during the years under a military dictatorship. The Netflix series tackles the political climate soon after the end of the regime, when there was still an ingrained distrust in public institutions. 

Coimbra says that, similarly to both Oscar-nominated films, “Radioactive Emergency” is a story about the past that “talks about today.” “You have that same feeling that it could happen now. The enormous gap between the rich and the poor in Brazil is still there, and so is this lack of trust. It’s the same with ‘I’m Still Here’ and ‘The Secret Agent.’ If they were made 20 years ago, maybe they wouldn’t be as relatable, but unfortunately, today, when you talk about dictatorships, there’s a parallel to what is happening in the world. It’s sad but true.”

“Nobody is telling each other: let’s do this. It’s a natural movement,” he adds about this certain sense of thematic cohesion in Brazil’s recent output. “I am from Kleber’s generation; we were making short films at the same time, so it’s beautiful to see where we are going and how Brazilian cinema is resonating now. It’s really powerful, and there seems to be an interest from the rest of the world in what we’re doing in Brazil. It took many years of work to get here, but it finally happened.”

While on the press tour for “The Secret Agent,” actor Oscar nominee Wagner Moura often emphasized the joy of finding international success for a role in a Brazilian film and speaking his own language, following years of working in the U.S. in major American productions like “Civil War” and “Dope Thief.” Coimbra, who is friends with Moura, says he shares this sentiment. 

“After a while doing things outside of Brazil, I start to miss it,” he says. “I realize I need to talk about my place, my world, my language, my people. It’s fun when you do shows like ‘Perry Mason’ in the Los Angeles of the 30s, but that has nothing to do with my life besides my passion for noir films.”

Asked about how he feels about the show’s success, Coimbra says there “wasn’t an expectation for the story to resonate, so it was a surprise.” “With movies, it’s different because people will get to it slowly. It takes a while. But with Netflix, it’s a boom, and then it’s everywhere in the world. You can see people are really enjoying it.”