The film opens in October 1945 in Garanhuns, a rural town in Pernambuco, where Luiz Inácio da Silva, nicknamed Lula, is born as the seventh child of Dona Lindu and Aristides. Two weeks after his birth, Aristides moves to Santos, a coastal city in São Paulo, with Dona Mocinha, a cousin of Dona Lindu. Dona Lindu, Glória Pires, raises Lula and his siblings alone for years, shouldering the responsibility while the family endures life on the margins. By December 1952, the family leaves the countryside behind and travels to Santos to meet the patriarch, hoping for stability. Upon their arrival, they uncover a hard truth: Aristides has already formed a second family with Dona Mocinha, and both households are living under the same roof, sharing scarce resources while trying to survive.
Two households under one roof intensify the struggle, as hunger, instability, and the pressures of a divided father figure filter into daily life. Lula and his siblings attend elementary school and, out of necessity, begin working as street vendors to help make ends meet. The family’s precarious situation shapes Lula’s early sense of social injustice and community care, themes that will echo throughout his later years. As the years pass, Dona Lindu makes the painful decision to leave the alcoholic and abusive Aristides and moves with her children to São Paulo, seeking a safer and freer life.
In São Paulo, Lula’s path shifts toward work and skilled training. He earns certification as a lathe operator and secures a formal job in the automobile industry. It’s a demanding career, and a troubling accident soon marks his hands and his future: Lula loses a finger in a press machine, an event that adds to the hardship but also to his resilience. This personal setback, paired with his brother Ziza’s arrest, nudges Lula toward a new form of public engagement. Sóstenes Vidal, who plays Ziza, appears in the background of these early chapters as Lula’s family member and witness to the risks of political dissent in a time when trade unionism faced heavy repression.
As Lula becomes more aware of labor rights and the broader social stakes, he begins to draw national attention through his growing involvement in trade union activism. His work on the shop floor, coupled with the collective organizing around workplace conditions, signals the start of a public life that defies the era’s restrictions on dissent. The narrative follows how these early experiences—family fragmentation, poverty, migration, and industrial work—shape Lula’s worldview and set the stage for his later prominence. The period also shadows the quiet tragedy of Lula’s mother’s passing, which coincides with his rising public profile and adds a personal cost to his activism.
Throughout, the film maintains a measured, grounded tone that foregrounds ordinary people facing extraordinary social pressures. It emphasizes the persistence of Lula’s family, the complicity of circumstances, and the moral clarity that arises from hardship. The result is a portrait that blends intimate family dynamics with the political currents of mid-20th-century Brazil, illustrating how personal history and national history intertwine in the making of a future leader.
