Zarattini: film about Lava Jato serves the interests of international capital.

Sputnik - The premiere of last weekend, "Federal Police - The Law is for Everyone," had barely hit theaters when it was already being accused of being biased against the Workers' Party (PT). The rhetoric escalated from both sides, and Sputnik spoke with director Marcelo Antunez and the PT leader in the Chamber of Deputies, Carlos Zarattini, to understand the perspectives of both sides on the issue.

Former President Lula and the businessmen involved in the corruption schemes investigated by the task force in Curitiba are the only ones to receive their real names in the film. The decision served to inflame passions: for PT supporters, it was an attempt to demonize the former president and undermine his credibility as a potential candidate in 2018.

"The goal is to discredit him, to prevent him from being the candidate because they [those involved in the film's production] are part of a project that wants to end all social and development projects in Brazil. It's the interests of international capital to make Brazil regress in what it has achieved in the last 20, 30 years of history," assesses the PT leader in the Chamber of Deputies, Carlos Zarattini, himself suspected of receiving payments from Odebrecht in 2010 and 2012.

The investigations were authorized by the rapporteur of Lava Jato at the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Edson Fachin, and are ongoing. "Obviously, they [the producers] never contacted us to ask for the PT's position," he added.

The film's director, Marcelo Antunez, said that the decision to conceal the names of the other individuals involved in the operation was creative. "As we progressed in our research, in each phase [of Lava Jato] there are countless agents and officers, and many of them don't work at other times, they disappear. There are phases with 50, 60 investigators, and they don't return or only return much later. From a scriptwriting perspective, it becomes impossible to tell a story with so many characters," he argues.

Anonymity

Another source of controversy on social media was the fact that the film's financiers remained anonymous. Marcelo says that they were businesspeople who, fearing reprisals, preferred to "invest" the production funds without having their names mentioned for fear of retaliation. But shouldn't a work that deals with transparency in public power also be transparent about the origin of the money responsible for the project?

"I find the criticism childish; I understand why people think that way, but certainly those who raise suspicions have other interests, to discredit the film, to raise suspicions. It's pathetic. There are several other films, including controversial ones, where the investors also chose to remain anonymous. It's a topic that divides Brazil so much, that it's responsible for such heated, sometimes aggressive positions. I perfectly understand their [the investors'] position. I can guarantee that there are no contractors or campaign financiers involved. I even think it would be interesting [to show who financed it], but it wasn't our decision, but rather the decision of those who put up the money. What don't we finance? We finance through Incentive Laws and are attacked for using public money to speak ill of a certain government?", the director questions.

Zarattini, however, has the opposite opinion. He doesn't believe there are political parties involved in funding the film, but rather business groups that "have no interest in the PT and Lula governing the country again."

"It's a political action involving private resources. It's not a work of art, it's a piece of propaganda with the clear objective of increasing the popularity of Operation Lava Jato," he assesses.

sequences

"Federal Police — The Law Applies to Everyone" has barely been released, and Marcelo Antunez is already preparing volume two of "Federal Police — The Law Applies to Everyone." The idea so far is to make a trilogy, and the second film should cover events from Lula's coercive detention to President Dilma's impeachment and the fall of ministers in Michel Temer's government. The reception, however, seems to be weak.
Despite having 737 licensed copies in theaters across Brazil, making it the biggest national premiere of the year, and 160 tickets sold between Thursday and Friday (the production projects reaching 480 for the entire weekend), the film received a weak reception, registering, according to the press, a low average of viewers per session.

"It's a low-quality film, a small audience is going to see it, and many people are criticizing the quality of the narrative. Perhaps it will backfire, becoming a mechanism to discredit Lava Jato," believes Zarattini, who adds that, at some point, the PT will need to "tell its own version of the story." Ignoring criticism from specialized journalists and reports of empty screenings, Antunez and his team are already working on the sequel.

"People are receiving it well, they're applauding. It's a good box office, especially on holidays when many people travel. [The sequel] doesn't depend only on me, it will depend on distributors and investors, but all of us, from a creative point of view, have already been working on it for a few weeks," he revealed.