Oliver Stone blinded by his love for Lula | EUROtoday
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Din what world does Oliver Stone reside, yesterday director of the fascinating Wall Street And JFK ? His documentary, co-directed with Rob Wilson, on Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, referred to as Lula, definitely has the benefit of recalling the extremely romantic lifetime of this poor child from Brazil who didn’t know the right way to learn at 10 years previous and was elected three time as president of the nation.
His montage, basically composed of archive pictures and interviews with the Brazilian, provides us a poignant account of the journey of Lula, a former commerce unionist who rose to the presidency, to whom Oliver Stone has the privilege of getting entry. “Lula is a survivor with a fascinating journey. He was the only president to finish both terms with an 80% approval rating. He is not a saint like Gandhi, but he advocates social justice,” explains Oliver Stone at Point in an interview carried out on the Cannes Film Festival. READ ALSO Lula-Bolsonaro: holy warfare in Rio
Unfortunately, he accumulates clichés about Brazil and even falls into conspiracy by denouncing American destabilization in opposition to Lula! During the ninety minutes of this documentary which appears meant for tv moderately than the cinema, Oliver Stone portrays the top of state as a saint with out flaws. The corruption and the Lava Jato-Petrobas scandal that introduced him down? A coup by the United States which allegedly managed prosecutors and the Brazilian media and which was denounced by Edward Snowden.
Hagiography
Most of the movie is a montage of archive pictures and interviews with the Brazilian. The administrators, sadly, didn’t take the time to enter the sphere, to contact political scientists and Brazilians from favelas, to attempt to perceive why that they had voted in opposition to Lula and even for Jair Bolsonaro.
They might need found one other actuality. That of a inhabitants disillusioned after two mandates by the populist drift of Lula and his Workers' Party (PT), suffering from repeated corruption scandals. Of course, due to Lula, Brazil opened as much as the world, and its financial system too. Of course he was a formidable fighter in opposition to poverty due to the Bolsa Familia social help in trade for schooling program, which has change into a reference on this planet. At 78 years previous, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is probably the one one at present who can pacify a rustic set ablaze by the 4 years of presidency of Jair Bolsonaro.
However, it might have been attention-grabbing if Oliver Stone had appeared on the grey components of the character with a view to paint a extra balanced portrait. In a caricatured evaluation, the 77-year-old director assures that Brazilians' mistrust of Lula comes solely from “the wealthy classes, conservative media and prosecutors” and that Edward Snowden's paperwork “proved that the United States was taking pictures the strings of this struggle in opposition to Lula”. As if the ability of affect of the United States, monumental within the Seventies since Washington supported the institution of dictatorships in Latin America, remained intact. This means forgetting the rapprochements made during the last twenty years with Russia and China, via the Brics and G20 summits.
“The United States needs a Lula”
“The United States participated in the lawfare, that is to say the political exploitation of justice against the Brazilian government. Dilma Rousseff was the first affected by theimpeachment before Lula, who was imprisoned for a year and a half for a trivial reason [elle a été accusée d’avoir maquillé les comptes publics en 2014, NDLR] », fumes Oliver Stone. After the revelations, at the end of 2013, of wiretapping carried out by the American secret services, Lula's successor, Dilma Rousseff, also of the PT, canceled a state visit to Washington with President Barack Obama.
Brazil's political polarization is reminiscent of that of the United States. “It is no coincidence that Trump is a fan of Bolsonaro and hates Lula,” underlines Oliver Stone. And the filmmaker concludes: “The United States however wants a Lula, an sincere president who comes from the working courses and who will get outcomes. » Not positive that the Americans will discover the uncommon pearl between now and the presidential election of November 5, 2024.
https://www.lepoint.fr/culture/festival-de-cannes-2024-oliver-stone-aveugle-par-son-amour-pour-lula-21-05-2024-2560835_3.php