RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Standing defiantly in front of his mother, the skinny boy orders his drunken father to stop beating her.
“Why?” growls the swaying man.
“Because a man doesn’t hit a woman!”
The exchange in a sympathetic new film portraying the life of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gives a glimpse of the guts and charisma that helped him to the top of Brazil’s most powerful labour union and eventually to the national presidency.
Lula – Brazil’s Son, opened in cinemas this week, telling the remarkable story of Brazil’s first working-class president and angering political rivals who say it is a two-hour campaign ad ahead of elections this year.
The movie, which at 12 million reais (about $7 million) reportedly boasts the biggest budget in Brazilian film history, caps a year in which the 64-year-old former metalworker and union boss cemented his place among the world’s most popular and successful leaders.
Brazil’s economy rebounded strongly from the global financial crisis, helping keep Lula’s approval ratings above the 70-percent level that has become routine since he was elected president in his fourth try in 2002.
The icing on the cake came in October when Lula’s efforts helped Rio de Janeiro win the race to host the 2016 Olympic Games, seen as the latest landmark in Brazil’s rise as a global power after decades of underachievement.
But the timing of the film ahead of elections in October and its largely gushing portrayal of Lula’s early years have given the movie’s release a distinctly political tinge.
Opposition politicians have slammed it as an election broadcast that aims to boost the chances of Lula’s chosen presidential candidate, chief of staff Dilma Rousseff. Lula cannot run for a third straight term.
The movie’s funding by 18 companies, ranging from construction firms to car makers, some of which have major contracts with the Lula government, has also been seized on by the opposition as evidence of unfair political propaganda.
Ronaldo Caiado, the leader of the opposition Democratas Party in the lower house of Congress, said the firms’ ties to the government meant that public resources were effectively being used to promote Lula’s legacy in an election year.
“It would be fine to make a film after his political life is over, but trying to turn him into a myth in an election year is obviously influencing the electoral process,” said Caiado, who has asked the government to provide details on contracts with the film’s patrons.
“This is an aggression against Brazil’s electoral laws.”
The Lula camp has dismissed the criticism as partisan grumbling, insisting the government had nothing to do with the film’s timing.
