LULA

(directors: Oliver Stone, Rob Wilson; screenwriters: Alexis Chavis/Kurt Mattila; cinematographers: Lucas Fuica/Joao Atala; editors: Alexis Chavez, Mark Franks, Kurt Mattila; music: Heitor Pereira; cast: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Glenn Greenwald, Oliver Stone; Runtime: 90; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Rob Wilson/Max Arvelaiz/Fernando Sulichin; New Elements Media; 2024-Brazil/USA)

“A diverting political documentary about Brazil’s current president.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Oliver Stone (“Platoon”/”JFK”) and producer Rob Wilson co-direct a diverting political documentary about Brazil’s current president. It features a long sit-down interview with the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, taking place 10 months before the election. Lula’s a hero of the left who in the 2022 election defeated Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. Lula had spent more than a year and a half in prison on unjust convictions that were eventually overturned before he became president.

The Stone team gives the complex leftist its full support, in a film that maintains a hagiography tone.

The interview questioned Lula’s relationships with recent American presidents, and brought up possible conspiratorial interpretations of events.

Though lacking depth, it’s smartly written by Alexis Chavis and Kurt Mattila.

It played at the Cannes Film Festival.

REVIEWED ON 10/31/2024  GRADE: B
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