The satire does not pass.
The film
Presidential Decree (Medida Provisória)
, a dystopian and creaking production that denounces the problem of racism in Brazil, has been screened since last year at several international festivals, notably in Moscow or Memphis, but still has no release date. commercial release in its own country.
The problem ?
Its outrageous scenario - the forced return to Africa of blacks from the country that demanded reparations for the damage caused by slavery - as well as the cast of the film's fictitious government.
Which resembles some members of the administration of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to be mistaken.
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The first feature film by Lazaro Ramos, an actor very famous in Brazil and recognized abroad for his role in
Madame Satan
(2002), the distribution of
Presidential Decree
has been hampered for months due to problems with the Ancina, the National cinema agency responsible for regulating the sector.
Incidentally dependent on the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, the government structure has been accused of
"censorship"
since the arrival of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro in January 2019.
“I don't know if it's bureaucracy or censorship, but both are harmful to culture,”
Lazaro Ramos said during a debate at the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival.
It was during this festival that the film premiered in Brazil on Wednesday evening.
“The idea of this film is to educate people.
I want the spectator, seeing him, to cry and tell himself that he is capable of leading an anti-racist fight
,
”
the director told AFP on the sidelines of this screening which was very applauded by the public.
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A "filter" on theatrical releases
And for good reason: in the film, the
eponymous
“presidential decree”
obliges all black people, or rather “
with accentuated melanin
”, as the government designates them, to surrender to the authorities to be deported to Africa.
Some representatives of this fictitious government look like members of the Bolsonaro administration, and the film is full of references to the racist prejudices that are legion in Brazil, the last country in America to have abolished slavery, in 1888. .
It is a victimization and a defamatory attack on our president.
Sergio Camargo, President of the Palmares Cultural Foundation
"It was very moving,"
said Tais Araujo, wife of Lazaro Ramos and one of the film's main actresses, alongside comedian and singer Seu Jorge and Alfred Enoch, an Anglo-Brazilian known for his roles in the
Harry
saga.
Potter
or the How to Get Away with Murder series
.
"My character is a black woman who, at the beginning, did not want to talk about racism, wants to give herself the right to live, but had to dive"
headlong into these problems, explains Tais Araujo.
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In April, Sergio Camargo, president of the Palmares Cultural Foundation, a public institute supposed to promote Afro-Brazilian culture, called for a boycott of this feature film.
"It is a victimization and a defamatory attack against our president"
, had blurted out this black leader and negationist who had made headlines in the past by affirming that slavery had been
"beneficial for Afro-descendants"
. According to the film's production, the distribution grant application was filed in November 2020, but the Ancine still hasn't followed through a year later.
Another film screened in several festivals around the world has experienced similar problems:
Marighella
, which tells the life of Carlos Marighella, one of the leaders of the armed struggle against the military dictatorship (1964-1985), a regime which Jair Bolsonaro did not stop apologizing. This film was only released in theaters last month, after having seen its requests rejected by Ancina twice in 2019. In July of that same year, President Bolsonaro had already indicated that he wished to
"filter"
Brazilian cinema productions. Despite all these difficulties, Lazaro Ramos does not intend to give up:
"We will not stop addressing these important themes, to reflect on how this country was built"
.
L'Ancine suggested, last Wednesday, that the request for the distribution of the
Presidential Decree
continued to be "
under analysis"
.