/ARTS WEEKLY/FILM-BRAZIL: Lula Double Feature

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 6 2004 (IPS) - President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is a central character in two newly released Brazilian documentaries – despite the fact that he does not actually appear in one of them.

The first is Entreatos (Interludes), directed by Joao Moreira Salles, one of Brazil’s best-known documentary filmmakers. Salles and his crew followed Lula during the last five weeks of the presidential campaign that culminated in the former trade union leader’s historic victory on Oct. 27, 2002.

The other new release is Peones (Labourers), from another leading figure in the documentary genre, Eduardo Coutinho. While the Brazilian president does not make a personal appearance, the film focuses on the metalworkers led by Lula during the historic 1979 and 1980 strikes in the Sao Paulo area.

This was the period that turned Lula into a national hero, for his courage in standing up to the military dictatorship and helping to carve out a leading role for workers in the country’s history.

The strikes also led to the birth of the Brazilian Workers Party (PT), co-founded by Lula in 1980, when he embarked on a political career that brought him to the presidency 22 years later.

Coutinho uses his celebrated skills as an interviewer to draw out the former comrades in struggle of the man who is now president.

Unlike Lula, these men remained anonymous heroes, and the director provides an intimate glimpse into their current lives, as they reminisce about the past.

Most are now retired, and many have returned to the poor northeastern region of Brazil from where they emigrated to Sao Paulo in search of work, like Lula’s own family.

Entreatos, in the meantime, provides an intimate glimpse into the life of the union activist-turned-president himself.

Salles’ camera follows Lula behind the scenes on the campaign trail, capturing conversations with family, friends and fellow party members, as well as the preparations that go into interviews, debates and campaign advertising.

The fact that the film keeps audiences hooked throughout its entire 114 minutes in duration – a dangerous length for any documentary – is largely the result of a liberal sprinkling of humour.

And most of that humour is supplied by Lula himself, who proves to be an endless source of jokes and comical anecdotes.

At one point he brags about his skills as a soccer player, then impulsively challenges his vice-presidential running mate, José Alencar, to a game on the grounds outside the presidential palace.

At another point, he describes a typical lunch break during his days as a labourer. He claims that he would knock back several shots of sugar-cane liquor and then eat "in 15 minutes flat" in order to have the rest of his break to play soccer, before finally heading back to work soaked in sweat.

This scene elicits particularly loud laughter from Brazilian viewers, given the fact that earlier this year, New York Times correspondent Larry Rother was almost kicked out of Brazil over an article alleging that the president’s drinking had become a "national concern".

More laughter is evoked as the presidential candidate laughingly recounts his failed attempts to escape violent police brutality by convincing the striking workers under his command to sing the national anthem and wrap themselves in the Brazilian flag.

Lula is nothing less than candid before the cameras, openly confessing his long-treasured dream of ascending to the ‘’middle class”. One of his happiest memories, he says, is of the day he was finally able to buy a car, which allowed him to ‘’conquer” his wife, Marisa.

‘’I don’t have an ounce of nostalgia for my days in the metallurgical plant,” he declares, stressing that the only people who romanticise the life of a worker ‘’are those who haven’t actually lived it.”

He adds that he never felt comfortable in his metalworker’s uniform, despite wearing it for years, but it only took him three days to get used to wearing a suit and tie.

Entreatos also reveals the political evolution undergone by Lula, reflected in his progressively more moderate words and objectives. His own comments on the need to forge wider political alliances and win over public opinion help explain the relatively conservative economic policies adopted by his administration.

There are in fact very few scenes in the documentary where Lula discusses his political philosophy. When the subject does come up, it is usually during one of the endless flights that are an indispensable part of an election campaign in a country as vast as Brazil.

In one of these scenes, Lula addresses the difference between his own political career and that of Poland’s Lech Walesa.

The two are often compared, given their shared backgrounds as trade union leaders. But as far as Lula is concerned, this is where the similarity ends.

Walesa was brought to power by ‘’conservative Catholics” and the anti-communist movement, and lacked a strong social base, Lula maintains.

Lula’s own rise, he says, is unique in the world, rooted in his role as the ‘’voice of the workers” and sustained by the support of the country’s largest labour confederation, the progressive sector of the Catholic church, the campesinos (small farmers), and a broad range of sectors within civil society.

Salles has said that he was given complete freedom in choosing the scenes to be included in the documentary’s final cut from the 240 hours of footage shot, and this is illustrated by the two occasions when the cameras are stopped by closed doors.

The filmmaker says that he chose the scenes he believed to be most revealing of the current president’s personality.