Word: lula
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Brazilian officials organizing the film premiere of Lula, Son of Brazil probably weren't thinking of the biopic's subject when they chose the music to be played before the curtain went up. But the subliminal connection with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was hard to ignore: "You're the One That I Want," "I Will Always Love You," the theme to the James Bond and Rocky flicks and then - almost inevitably - just moments before the film began, the uplifting bars of the theme to Superman...
...been that kind of a year for Lula; even in the middle of the worst global economic crisis in 80 years, everything went right for him. His government lowered interest rates to a level not seen in decades, and foreign reserves rose to a record high. Brazil was last into and first out of the recession, and domestic consumption remained high as the gap between rich and poor narrowed at an unprecedented rate. Rio de Janeiro became the first South American city to win the right to host the Olympics. Meanwhile, Lula's opposition flailed aimlessly. His personal popularity regularly...
None of this, however, is in Lula, Son of Brazil, the two-hour epic that opens across Latin America's biggest nation on Jan. 1. With a secondary billing that goes "You know the man, but you don't know his story," the film vaults through the episodes that marked Lula's early years and his remarkable rise from poor to powerful. Starting in the scrubland of the northeast, where he was born one of eight kids, it follows him to São Paulo, where he suffered at the hands of an abusive and alcoholic father. It shows...
Little-known actor Rui Ricardo Dias does a fine job portraying Lula from young man to adult, but the film glosses over Lula's frailties, depicting him as a man who can do no wrong. "The director omitted episodes in Lula's life that suggest the President has weaknesses or defects," said Veja, a popular right-wing newsmagazine. "Basically, it's a terrible film," wrote critic Ricardo Calil...
Producer Paula Barreto acknowledges the film rounds out some of Lula's rough edges but says such is the concessionary nature of making biopics. "It's a film, and cinema is about choices. You have to leave things out," Barreto tells TIME. "What was important was that I wanted to portray that conciliatory side of him - the man who brought people together, who always wanted to talk and negotiate and was never radical...