Lula, o filho do Brasil (Lula, Brazil’s son): from a drought migrant to the presidency of the republic of Brazil – one story, several readings

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing some elements of the narrative path of the film Lula, o filho do Brasil, by Fábio Barreto. The film covers the life story of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from his birth in the countryside of Pernambuco until the death of his mother, Dona Lindu, and ends with actual images of the President’s inauguration. The goal is to show how the French narrative theory (Greimas, 1966, 2011; Balogh, 2002) and the script media events - competition, conquest and coronation (Dayan; Katz, 1999) - articulate the “heroic saga” of a northeasterner to the presidency the country. This paper reviews some theoretical concepts by their observation in the film and also examines relevant aspects of media communication, such as the narrative structure based on the family environment (Sodré, 1977) and the reality-fiction syncretism Rezende (1997). By combining the theoretical basis and the reflections resulting from the reading of the film, it is possible to identify that the former president?s trajectory - pictured as a “saga” - is built from the difficulties he and his family went through and surmounted, resulting in the character’s portrayal as a hero.