A defender of the dictatorship, Eduardo Bolsonaro attacks Walter Salles: 'psychopath'
Jair Bolsonaro's son used social media to attack the film "I'm Still Here" and its director "for complaining about the American government."
247 - Brazilian congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP) has once again sparked controversy by criticizing filmmaker Walter Salles, director of the film "I'm Still Here," winner of the 2025 Oscar for Best International Feature Film. In social media posts, the congressman accused Salles of producing a film about a "non-existent dictatorship" and stated that he could be characterized as a "cynical psychopath" for "complaining about the American government."
“I believe that the person who applauds the imprisonment of mothers, elderly people and innocent workers, while making films about a non-existent dictatorship and complaining about the American government, which gives him all the rights and guarantees so that his public and mendacious complaints are respected by the sacred right of freedom of expression, defines, in essence, the concept of the cynical psychopath,” wrote Eduardo Bolsonaro on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday night (4) according to CNN Brasil. Walter Salles' film addresses
The congressman also stated that if Walter Salles criticized the "regime established by Alexandre de Moraes," he would be in jail. "If he spoke ill of the regime established by Alexandre de Moraes, he would be in prison, enjoying all the splendor of left-wing democracy. It must be really difficult to live in an American dictatorship," he added, referring to Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes.
Eduardo Bolsonaro's statements were a reaction to an interview given by Walter Salles, in which the filmmaker stated that authoritarianism "is a laughingstock in the world" and that the American public identified with "I'm Still Here" because the film reflects contemporary issues in the United States.
“We are experiencing something here that I didn’t expect so soon. We are seeing a growing weakening of democracy, and this process is accelerating more and more. The only thing I can attest to is how close the film, which deals with a military dictatorship, became to those who saw it in the United States. [...] People came to talk to me about this, about how close the film seemed to a reality today in the United States. And I would say that it’s not just here, because, in a way, it echoes the authoritarian danger that is prevalent in the world as a whole today,” Salles said in the interview.
The film "I'm Still Here" is based on the book of the same name by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, author also of "Happy Old Year," a bestseller from the 1980s. The plot takes place in the 1970s, during the military dictatorship in Brazil, and follows the Paiva family: Rubens (Selton Mello), Eunice (Fernanda Torres), and their children. The central storyline revolves around the disappearance of Rubens Paiva, taken away by plainclothes military officers, while his wife, Eunice, spends decades fighting to discover her husband's whereabouts.
Rubens Paiva had his political rights revoked in 1964 with the military coup, and his body was never found. In 1996, a death certificate was issued for the former congressman, and in 2025, the death certificate was corrected to state that the death was caused by state agents during the period of the military dictatorship.
The film received three Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best International Feature Film, and Best Actress for Fernanda Torres. The production made history by winning the first Academy Award for Brazil.
The film received three Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best International Feature Film, and Best Actress for Fernanda Torres. The production made history by winning the first Academy Award for Brazil.
On Tuesday night (4), President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) congratulated Walter Salles on winning the Oscar and celebrated the historic victory for Brazilian cinema. “We don’t have much to say when we realize that a Brazilian is capable of surpassing himself in an art that, until then, it seemed to me that only Americans won. So I want to tell you that it was a golden night,” said Lula.
According to the president, the film's director managed to "cleanse the soul of the Brazilian people and Brazilian cinema," in addition to recovering, "in a very important way, the history of Rubens Paiva." The head of the Executive branch also invited actress Fernanda Torres and director Walter Salles to a meeting to celebrate the Oscar statuette, which should take place in Brasília, but a date has not yet been set.
