'Stories of resistance in Brazil have always fascinated me,' says Wagner Moura.

Da Current Brazil Network - In a press interview in Berlin, the film's director marighella, Wagner Moura, compared to Resistance to the 1964 coup extends to the current situation in the country, governed by Jair Bolsonaro.“We can see the differences between what happened in '64, and the resistance of that time... And it's no different from the resistance we have in Brazil now.” The actor-director cited the LGBT community, the favelas, and Black people, as well as people who will likely have problems with the current government, as representatives of this resistance.

“Stories of resistance in Brazil have always fascinated me. The Malê Revolt in Bahia, where I was born, the protests against the dictatorship... Especially that, because I was born in 1976. But my generation was very different from the one that fought,” he said.

According to Wagner Moura, his film – whose project began in 2013 and was developed during the Temer administration – is not a response to a specific government, but is obviously "opposed to the group that is in power (in Brazil)," he stated. "I don't want the film to be a response to Bolsonaro. But it is certainly one of the first cultural products openly opposed to what he represents."

Politely, the director criticized the president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Minister Dias Toffoli, who stated that there was no coup in Brazil in 1964, but "a movement." "The first thing is the semantic shift, saying 'it wasn't so bad.' Fascist governments start with semantics. This film exists to say that the dictatorship was horrible," he said.

He predicts his film will provoke controversy in Brazil. "I imagine it will be criticized by the right, but also by the left," he said. "I'm prepared for anything, including being booed and having trash thrown at the screen."

Born in 1976, he explained that his generation was "alienated" from both the 1964 generation and the current one. "These kids who are now going to the streets look much more like the 64 generation than mine."

Asked about the message of marighellaMoura stated that it symbolizes "resistance," and its importance lies in showing that "citizens have the right and the obligation to resist dictatorships, violent states, and those who do not respect citizens."

At its world premiere yesterday in Berlin, Wagner Moura's film was applauded by the audience, made up of Brazilian and international journalists. Although it is not competing for the Golden Bear, the festival's main prize (one of the most important in the world film circuit), the film was shown in the main program.

marighella There is no scheduled release date in Brazil. Its production, which resulted in a 155-minute film, cost R$ 10 million.

Singer Seu Jorge plays the role of guerrilla fighter Carlos Marighella, who was killed by the dictatorship on November 4, 1969, after being ambushed on Alameda Casa Branca, in São Paulo.

The film is based on the book. Marighella – The man who set the world on fire (Companhia das Letras, 2012), by journalist Mário Magalhães. The cast also includes Adriana Esteves, Bruno Gagliasso, Herson Capri, and Humberto Carrão, among others.

Marighella was born in 1911 in Salvador. He participated in communist activism and was elected federal deputy to the Constituent Assembly in 1946. He broke with the PCB (Brazilian Communist Party) and created the National Liberation Action (ALN).