User Reviews

I'm on the left, but I was hoping for more emotion, of all Eduardo's documentaries, this was the coldest, I lacked feeling, I was rarely moved, and this filmmaker's works became remarkable for moving, motivating and involving ... But a faithful portrait of the pawns and their union struggles, until the happy outcome of a union president...

In this documentary, Eduardo Coutinho follows his "trademark", interviewing workers from the Brazilian ABC twenty-three years after their first strike leaded by their leader Luis Inácio "Lula" da Silva. In 1979, Brazil lived a dictatorship, and the metallurgic were the first class of workers that, under the command of the president of their union, Lula, organized a strike in the military regime and faced the police and the dominant class (entrepreneurs). Coutinho interviews, using his manipulative method, workers that participated of this movement and worshipped Lula, together with footages of their conventions and inter-titles explaining the political and economical situation of Brazil in that moment. A couple of months later, Lula was elected President of Brazil.

I believe this documentary deserved a sequel, interviewing the same persons to hear their opinion about the government of Lula from 2002-2006, who was surrounded by scandals of corruption and reelected for another four-years period. For the overseas, "peões" is a pejorative designation of workers, who wear uniform and are moved wherever the boss wants. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Peões" ("Pawns" (literally), but meaning workers)