Living with nephews in the 1990s made Rio filmmaker Charly Braun dedicate himself to the production that, after a decade, arrives on Globoplay, this Thursday (16), as a documentary series about the rise and fall of the former president, .
Collor marked the country’s political history the day after taking office, in March 1990, and two years later due to a corruption accusation made by one of his brothers, .
The family split was accompanied by Braun, around 10 years old at the time, due to the frustrations and bullying suffered by his children.
Living with part of his family helped the filmmaker think about the work, titled “Hunter of Maharajas”, from “a very specific and intimate place”, says Braun. The relationship was due to the closeness of his family — he is the son of businessman Martin Braun and architect Rosa May Sampaio — with Leopoldo and his wife, Regina.
“I was a bit of a strange witness to that, because I was a child, but I followed this dramatic rise and fall through the eyes of these children too, who were my friends.”
According to Braun, the impeachment had an impact on the children, who faced an environment of tension and bullying at the time because of their surname.
“Even though I was a child, this story stayed with me, because of the relationship I had with them. I didn’t experience it all or meet Fernando Collor at that time, but he was my classmates’ uncle.”
The director says he mixed perceptions about this intimate space with political reflection on one of the most intriguing characters in Brazilian history.
“If we go back to 1990, I don’t think there has been, besides Lula and Bolsonaro, any other politician other than Collor who has fallen in love with the country.”
The documentary is divided into seven episodes lasting around 40 minutes. To compose it, there were more than 70 interviews and trips to Brasília, Alagoas —where Collor was governor, deputy and mayor before becoming President—, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Maranhão.
Former presidents such as and , journalists who covered Collor’s fall were interviewed, such as the former editorial director of Veja magazine, Thereza Collor, then wife of Pedro Collor, and Eriberto França, a driver who showed what would be evidence of Fernando Collor’s involvement in the corruption scheme of his campaign treasurer, PC Farias.
The series also includes archival records from the time from newspapers such as Sheet and TV Globo, in addition to dramatization. The work is the first non-fiction work by Braun, who has already won an award as a director with “Beyond the Road”, .
For the filmmaker, “Hunter of Maharajas” is important in allowing the viewer to think about a recent past that reveals dynamics still present in national politics, such as the outsider stance adopted by characters with experience in politics.
This was the case of Collor, who launched himself into the Presidency in 1989 adopting a speech of anti-politics, in favor of morality and against public servants with exorbitant salaries, whom he called maharajas.
Despite selling himself as an outsider, he came from a family already involved in politics before his election. His father, Arnon de Mello, was a federal deputy, senator and governor of Alagoas.
Likewise, the outsider speech was used by () to launch himself into the Presidency in 2018, even though he had acted for
According to Braun, the work is an invitation so that, with the natural distance that comes from analyzing an episode from the last century, the viewer can make more critical and “less passionate” parallels about politics, in which President Lula (PT), Bolsonaro and Collor were the figures who most mobilized Brazilians in the post-military dictatorship period, in the filmmaker’s interpretation.
“I think the three of them represented, for a portion of the population, this idea of savior of the country. I think there’s a bit of that. Maybe they positioned themselves like that, each in their own way.”
The characters also provide an example, in which at least 20 former presidents have been arrested this century. , the picture indicates a more efficient Justice in the region, but also possible politicization of the Judiciary.
While Collor, who returned to the political universe as a senator after the 1992 impeachment, was in a process derived from , Lula was arrested in 2018 for money laundering and corruption in a process that sentenced him to more than 12 years in prison. He was released after one year and seven months in custody in Curitiba, and his sentences were later annulled because the (Supreme Federal Court) considered that Sergio Moro, judge of the cases, acted with partiality and that the cases should have been processed in the Federal District, not in Paraná.
Former president Bolsonaro is currently under house arrest for attempting to obstruct the criminal action that sentenced him to 27 years and 3 months in prison for leading a coup plot in 2022.
