On New Years’ Day in Santo Antonio de Jesús, Brazil, a controversial biographical film was released depicting the difficult life and upbringing of one of the new presidential candidates in Brazil.  The film captures the hardships in Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s life from showing the underprivileged, one-room house, which he shared with seven brothers and sisters and his two parents.  With an alcoholic, abusive father and his doting mother, Luiz Silva was raised in a problematic household.  Silva was only credited with up to a fourth grade education.  The controversy around this movie surrounds the release date, which just happens to be during a presidential election year.

    “Everything about his film is political,” Amaury de Souza, a political analyst in Rio de Janeiro informed the New York Times (Barrionuevo).  Silva has already served as president so he cannot be reelected, but he wants the popularity to be passed onto his chosen successor, Dilma Rousseff.  Most of Silva’s popularity arouse when Silva became the leader of a steelworkers’ union, and the experience of being the leader of this union helped him never give up trying to become the president of Brazil, which was his ultimate goal.  After four attempts to become the president, he finally succeeded.  Silva steadied the economy, and won the people over with his populist appeal and charisma, which have since made him a national icon.

    This movie could benefit him in the elections of 2014 when he plans to return to power.  The film’s producer, Paula Barreto stated, “I don’t think this movie has the power to affect an election.”  She also suggested, “Lula is Lula and this film is about his family.”  The film highlights the suffering of his family during his life and his economic disadvantages but portrays how he still believed in himself and became a success story.  Somehow, in the midst of all the emotional commotion, the film fails to show the truth about some scandals in his past making this biographical film somewhat biased and all for good publicity.

 
Bibliography

Barrionuevo, Alexei. New Film May Sway Brazil's Vote on President. 11 January       2010. 15 January 2010. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01

/12/world/americas/12brazil.html?sc=2&sq=Brazil&st=cse>.