By Rob, how have you worked with Oliver Stone?
I’ve worked with Oliver for 25 years now. I’ve produced all of his documentaries since 2008 with Untold History. And then we came to Cannes recently with JFK Revisited in 2021.
What is this documentary about?
Oliver – 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.
What interested you in particular about his imprisonment?
Oliver – Lula found himself in prison as a result of a coup. He proved this in the film, noting that he had been imprisoned as a result of what they call in South America, and other countries, “lawfare”, the political instrumentalisation of justice which consists in putting someone behind bars by means of a number of laws guided by and motivated by political considerations. It was a dirty story. It’s interesting to see how Lula got out of prison, which was miraculous, thanks to a hacker that we interviewed. He told us an extraordinary story, which then took place: Lula was freed, he returned to politics and narrowly beat Bolsonaro during the 2022 elections.
It’s a good illustration of how the world works today, how power pulls the strings, and how you can thwart your adversary by means of a scandal.
You decided to favour interviews?
Oliver – 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. The world is not in danger, with the exception of climate change, but we keep saying that it’s in crisis, that China, Russia, all these counties are dangerous. Who says that? It comes from NATO, from France as much as America. They are the ones who create this danger, they don’t realise they’re causing tension. It’s part of American policy, a way of keeping the world divided to stay at the top. I want people who see this documentary to try to understand the part of Lula within themselves.
