Central Services is the fictional faceless, Kafkaesque bureaucracy at the heart of Brazil (1985), Terry Gilliam’s dystopian satire. It’s the government department responsible for everything from duct repairs to surveillance, drowning citizens in endless paperwork and absurd regulations. The system is so convoluted that even simple maintenance requires multiple forms and approvals, often leading to chaos or wrongful arrests. Central Services embodies the film’s critique of technocratic control and dehumanizing administration—where efficiency is a myth and rebellion begins with fixing your own air conditioning. Robert De Niro’s rogue repairman Harry Tuttle exists in direct defiance of it, symbolizing individual resistance against systemic absurdity.
