The film chronicles his extraordinary journey in 2022 to regain the Brazilian presidency after spending 19 months in prison.
Its a story you have to see to believe.
Its a reminder that we can elect working class people to the presidency, of any country.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva C attends a celebration event in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on October 30Getty Images
You dont have to have a billion dollars, you dont have to be a member of the elite.
I prefer that, to have actually somebody whos more humble, run a country.
I think thats one thing that really draws me to him.
Oliver StoneVioleta Sofia for Deadline
And of course his life story is very dramatic.
He has had two very positive terms.
He reduced the poverty in Brazil enormously, giving money to the poor directly.
$10 goes a lot farther than the promise of a hundred dollars or building some other big structure.
That $10 can go a long, long way.
What he did with that makes it an amazing story to be celebrated.
We dont have enough celebration about politicians in this world.
We treat them like, oh, theyre always corrupt.
Theyre always this or that.
Ironically, Lula gets charged with corruption, in a new form of warfare.
And we show in the film what happens.
STONE: I made that movieSnowdenin 2016, but the Snowden leaks came out in 2013 and in 2014.
How they tapped the phone of Dilma Rousseff, who was president.
She had some very tough talk with Obama about being tapped.
Germany was tapped too.
There was a whole bunch of scandals.
That brought focus on what is going on here.
Petrobras was becoming a worldwide operation.
Thats what it was about.
And thats what lawfare is.
There was a system in place in Brazil where a certain amount of corruption is allowable.
And I think thats the way the world works.
All of a sudden, why now does Petrobras become a big issue?
And they got him for a while, he went to jail.
Its unbelievable that he went to jail.
This was pretty outrageous and bald attempt to undermine the election of 2018.
The hacker revelations and the journalism that exposed it led to Lula being freed.
You interview Lula extensively, along with the hacker and the journo.
Bot Bolsonaro, or Moro, whose political aspirations as an anti-corruption crusader were undermined by the exposed truths.
Why do it that way?
Making charges and accusations like that does have an effect.
And we show people who are screaming how much they hate Lula.
You feel the opposition.
Time becomes a factor.
Look what I had to cover.
I covered his life, the concept of him going into politics.
I didnt spend a lot of time on the first two terms.
You see the intention and that Bolsonaro was involved.
Its thrown out by the Supreme Court, and then Lula wins the election.
Its very dramatic, a comeback like you cant believe, by a working class president.
How many do we have left in the world?
He was a clean guy.
It was quite a story to me.
Why were they so demonstrative against a guy you depict as righteous?
STONE: I think its a lot in common with American character.
Ive done so many films down there.Salvador, the films on Castro and Chavez.
People get carried away and politics tend to be emotional and not always reasonable.
Theyre not using their minds, theyre using their hearts.
Its the nature of what makes politics.
It can lead to disasters.
He might benefit by being seen as an honest broker as opposed to the corrupt ones.
I cant tell you the answer, but they are emotional.
I mean, theres no evidence of it.
Thats not really anything special.
I see no evidence of living a high life.
And Ive been among presidents in Mexico and so forth who have come out of office with mansions.
Its not the case with Lula, at least I saw no evidence of it.
No evidence of it.
All of this leads me back to the Snowden papers just to say, what is going on here?
Is there a link?
Was the United States involved?
DEADLINE: Will you get back behind the camera to make another narrative film?
STONE: Id like to, I think I have one more in me.
Ive done 20 and about 10 documentaries now.
So its a whole different ballgame.
They dont want to, because theyre safer here in Hollywood.
It distorts their value system.
Its the way I was raised by my father.
But it is an important narrative.
Id like to have one more film if I can get it done.
Itll be done in the next year, thats for sure.
DEADLINE: Last one for me.
Your purpose, you said, was not to canonize the Russian leader, but simply to humanize him.
STONE: Well, its not about him.
Its about Russia and the United States.
This is my concern.
And that was agreed to by the Americans very clearly.
The United States broke every treaty with Russia.
13 countries have been anti-Soviet anti-Russian countries, not just anti-Soviet, but anti-Russian have been incorporated into NATO.
And we are following that plan.
The Russians have said, this is a red line for us, Ukraine especially.
This is the border of Russia, and youre right there and youre putting missiles in.
And just today, was it Biden yesterday was saying that they wanted to integrate Ukraine into NATO.
Its a lost dog.
This is the Russian interest, it is on their borders, man.
We are going to go to a potential World War III situation for Ukraine?
Dont you think thats crazy?
The American people havent been consulted about that.
Do they really know whats going on?
Do they know about the agreements with Gorbachev?
Do they know how the Russians think?
And on top of that, hes saying, weve got to weaken Russia.
Thats a crazy tactical goal.
It wont work because Russia is united and strong and at the same time, proud.
I mean, you cant do this to Russia.
His rise is as unlikely as that of Lula.
STONE: Hes the underdog.
The problem is I despise him because he promised when he was elected that he was a peace candidate.
Ukraine is not in charge of its approach.
Its been told to them by the United States, well support you on these conditions.
We want you to be our democratic flag bearer in far East of Europe.
We will fight for you.
We will support you.
Well give you all the money you need.
All we want you is to give, put your men on the front line and keep fighting.
But eventually theres going to be a breakthrough.
They havent done that yet.
Theyve have limited goals.
and seemingly little regard for the soldiers in the trenches just trying to survive?
STONE: You are as old as I am, almost.
Youve seen this process.
We fought for certain places.
We made this into a Cold War, but now were way past the Cold War.
This is not communism.
This is another form of Russia.
They want to integrate.
They did integrate for 20 years, successfully.
Why all of a sudden did Biden change the rules?
This is very disturbing to me and very dangerous to us, our economy.
Theres no need to fight a war.
And that is what concerns me.
