A Conspiração Condor: André Sturm’s political thriller follows a young journalist who bumps into what may well be a conspiracy starting from the top echelon of the military dictatorship in Brazil. The investigation, like the film, is mostly inept: what is uncovered hardly justifies the events in the plot, and, by extension, the telling of the plot itself. A sub-plot that quotes a classic of 1960s political cinema is a useless and lengthy detour, made worse by a self-indulgent cameo by the director. The protagonist, played by Mel Lisboa (or rather, overplayed, since the main concept of her performance is “why not just turn it to 11?”), is hardly developed; her catty relationship with a veteran colleague (played indifferently by Maria Manoella) is badly explored. Dan Stulbach plays yet another journalist, whose wildly uneven accent is lazily justified by a few lines of dialogue. Cinematographer Andradina Azevedo is good enough, but the production design is, at times, a bit careless as it tries to recreate the late 1970s; the costume design, at least, gives Lisboa stylish clothes to wear.