An intimate portrait of Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva that explores the rise, fall and return to power of a politician considered unique after 19 months in prison. This is the proposal of “Lula”, a documentary by North American director Oliver Stone and Rob Wilson about the president of Brazil that premiered in Cannes on Sunday (19).
In an interview to the festival’s official website, Stone explained what his documentary is about.
“It’s about the period where Lula was thrown in prison for almost two years, and, more generally, the period between 2016 and 2022. As President of Brazil for two terms from 2002 to 2010, he was responsible for a lot of the country’s progress. Then came Dilma Rousseff, who was removed from office in the framework of very strange legal proceedings. Then the situation in Brazil went much further to the right, with Javier Bolsonaro becoming president in 2018”.
The documentary features never-before-seen interviews with the president and his advisors. The main interview with Lula was done by Stone during the 2022 election campaign.
“I talked to Lula about his entire life, he’s a good man. I think that he represents something that we’ve really forgotten about: we can have good, liberal presidents. We don’t need war. He’s one of the most pacifist people in the world that I know, and he has the ability to get people to talk again, to lead countries to change their policies”.
Lula” was shown in the “Special Sessions” exhibition of the Festival’s official selection and does not participate in the competitive exhibition.
The documentary’s launch session in one of the Festivals Palace rooms was packed and the film’s team received great applause. Before the screening, Stone said the documentary was “about a special person in the world today, a unique leader.”
Source: g1 and Festival-cannes