Chico Mou

ABC of a Strike captures the 1979 metal workers strikes outside of São Paulo. The footage sat untouched until after the death of highly-regarded director Leon Hirszman in 1987, by which time the material had a new relevance. The gripping film captures the negotiations between the labor unions and the factory bosses and shows the birth of the region’s Worker’s Party, as well as the emergence of its charismatic leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Rising from extreme poverty, Lula gained national prominence as a union activist during the late 70s and early 80s. After being jailed during his time as a union leader, he eventually becomes Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2010.

ABC of a Strike captures the 1979 metal workers strikes outside of São Paulo. The footage sat untouched until after the death of highly-regarded director Leon Hirszman in 1987, by which time the material had a new relevance. The gripping film captures the negotiations between the labor unions and the factory bosses and shows the birth of the region’s Worker’s Party, as well as the emergence of its charismatic leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Rising from extreme poverty, Lula gained national prominence as a union activist during the late 70s and early 80s. After being jailed during his time as a union leader, he eventually becomes Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2010.

ABC of a Strike captures the 1979 metal workers strikes outside of São Paulo. The footage sat untouched until after the death of highly-regarded director Leon Hirszman in 1987, by which time the material had a new relevance. The gripping film captures the negotiations between the labor unions and the factory bosses and shows the birth of the region’s Worker’s Party, as well as the emergence of its charismatic leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Rising from extreme poverty, Lula gained national prominence as a union activist during the late 70s and early 80s. After being jailed during his time as a union leader, he eventually becomes Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2010.

From its very title, Cláudio Kahns and Antônio Paulo Ferraz's Santo e Jesus, Metalúrgicos is crystal clear about where it stands and about its messianic flair. Through a wordplay with the religious connotation of the names of the two men, murdered during the worker strikes of the late 1970s in São Paulo, it associates sainthood and Christ himself with the working class. That association is reaffirmed throughout the film, from the very beginning, including by a priest. The martyrdom of metalworkers Nelson Pereira de Jesus and Santo Dias da Silva is the starting point to denounce the working conditions faced by factory workers, and the repression which ensues whenever they try to resist them. However, the film also presents us with the 'official' version of the facts, going so far as to feature interviews with the man who killed Nelson. Obviously, it sides with the workers, as it conveys the strength of the oppressed and the impudence of the oppressors.