São Paulo – The Brazilian author Marcelo Rubens Paiva, happily, swing his wheelchair from side to side, dancing with thousands of carnival juerguistas there to celebrate him and his work. Seconds later, an unidentified man showed Paiva his middle finger, then threw a can of beer and a backpack that hit him in the head.
Paiva, a popular author in Brazil For four decades, he has had intense days and exchanges from the film based on his 2015 book “I’m still here” It became a box office success. The film, a rare box office success in the South American nation, obtained three Oscar nominations ahead of Domingo of the Awards ceremony.
While millions of Brazilians love the story of their Speed of truth for a long time On the military dictatorship of 1964-1985 of the country, others see it as leftist propaganda. Paiva has dismayed for the effusion of hate, mostly online, addressed to him.
“It is simply (our) story that is said in the way we believe it must be told, the way our family lived it, so it never happens again,” said Paiva, 65, to The Associated Press in his Sao Paulo apartment. “I assure you that some of those who are on the extreme right or right have seen it and may have changed their opinion.”
“I’m still here” He is prepared for the best image and the best international film, while Fernanda Torres, who portrayed Paiva’s mother, Eunice, is competing for the best actress. The film focuses on the disappearance of Rubens Paiva, the author’s father and the search for Eunice of decades to force the authorities to confirm his death.
Paiva, one of the five brothers, is known known, but not so much controversy. His 1982 book “Happy Old Year” narrated his life before and after a diving accident put him in a wheelchair, he sold more than 1.5 million copies. It is also a playwright, former television presenter and political activist.
But he says that nothing prepared him for the sudden impact “I’m still here”, since he won the best script in the Venice Film Festival. Many other awards since then.
“This is very different; It is more intense due to social networks, “said Paiva.” People (around the world) react in the same way to this film, with the same emotion that Brazilians felt. “
After his book about his accident, he knew that he still had another important story to tell.
“I was the son of a missing politician; Few people knew what had happened during the dictatorship, ”he said.
That was largely because Congress approved an amnesty law in 1979, since the dictatorship approached its end, saving the perpetrators of political crimes of the prosecution.
The cracks began to emerge in 2011 after then President Dilma Rousseff – An old guerrillas that was tortured during the dictatorship – established a National Truth Commission to investigate their abuses. It was one of the seeds for Paiva’s book and, later, the film.
“People asked for repairs for the families of missing politicians, sued my father’s torturers,” he said. “The military showed that they were upset, because their colleagues and their coup d’etat were under fire. The accusations were being published, so they began to threaten Brazil’s democracy. And little by little, I was in doubt once again. “
The last anger to the Paiva family has come remarkably from a man: Jair Bolsonarothe former army captain who set up a wave of populism against the establishment to his presidency (2019-2022).
In 2014, the then manufacturer of Bolsonaro law spit in a statue of the deceased Paiva in Congress, accusing him and his family of being at the service of communist terrorists. His claims date from the 1990s and falsely link a farm that the Paiva family owned, near Bolsonaro, with a group of guerrillas.
“Every year, he spoke a speech against my father, inventing stories,” Paiva said. “Once, he said that my father had been killed by his comrades who were in the armed struggle, because he had revealed things during the torture sessions. It was the first time I heard someone tell such an absurd story, without evidence, and people believed it. It was the first time that I saw the power of social networks in the creation of a new narrative, a lie. “
Bolsonaro said in an interview on Monday that he has not seen the film, but his allies have criticized, saying that Paiva died in a war, like many on both sides. The Brasil’s Truth Commission discovered that at least 434 people died at the hands of the military regime, including 136 that disappeared.
Paiva published “I am still here” when Alzheimer’s disease eliminated his mother’s memory. The director Walter Salles bought the rights in 2017, but decided not to make the film during Bolsonaro’s presidency. Last week, Brazil’s Attorney General accused of Bolsonaro for allegedly organizing a blow stay in power. He included inciting a riot in the capital of Brasilia encouraging his followers to mark the disturbances an echo of the insurrection of the Capitol in the United States.
“People everywhere are afraid to see that their democracies become dictatorships,” Paiva said. “This film glorifies democracy and the understanding that human rights, empathy are scarce.”
In addition to the recent achievements of Paiva since the film was released, the death certificate of his father, obtained for the first time by his mother in 1996, was updated in January to go beyond the mere confirmation to include: “violent death caused by the Brazilian state in the context of systematic persecution to the population identified as dissidents of the policies of the dictator regime installed in 1964.” “
The Supreme Court of Brazil said earlier this week that it will govern if the only survivor among the torturers of Rubens Paiva, General José Antônio Nogueira Belham, can be tried. Brazilian human rights activists have argued that hiding bodies is a continuous crime not covered by the country’s amnesty law.
“I see literature as a mission, and I feel that mine was done,” said Paiva. “The mission of the film is done, even if you don’t win any Oscar.”
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