Produced in the heat of Brazil’s re-democratization, the music video for Pânico! by the band As Mercenárias stages the pursuit and execution of a politician by a gang of women. The performative action expresses a deep mistrust of the political opening, using stylized violence to mock promises of change. Through dissonance and repetition, the song connects love, youth, and politics in a gesture typical of 1980s Brazilian rock: both hopeful and skeptical, confronting authority and official discourse.
