LETTER FROM SÃO PAULO

At the height of the tropical summer, nothing could have foreshadowed such an attack. On January 15, Le Monde was flooded with thousands of messages from Brazilian social media users. Over two days, the newspaper had to delete some 21,600 offensive comments, mostly on Instagram, compared with 700 on a normal day. The Brazilian press widely reported this "invasion."

At issue was journalist Jacques Mandelbaum's review of the film I'm Still Here ("Ainda Estou Aqui") by Brazilian director Walter Salles. The film, which tells the story of Rubens Paiva, a left-wing ex-MP kidnapped and murdered in 1971 by the military dictatorship, seen through the eyes of his wife Eunice, did not impress the journalist. He deplored a "hieratic" film driven by a lead actress, Fernanda Torres, who was "rather monotone."

Not his best move in the eyes of the 3.5 million Brazilian spectators. The film, which won Best Dramatic Actress at the Golden Globes, Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival and is now up for Best Picture at the 2025 Oscars, is a phenomenon in in its country. Immediately, battalions of outraged online commentators attacked Le Monde, with messages that were sometimes funny, but often malicious. "Respect Brazil, OK?" exclaimed one of them on a chauvinistic note. Like so many others, he suspected Le Monde of conspiring in favor of French director Jacques Audiard's Emilia Pérez, also in the running for Oscars. "They're trying to destroy our film in favor of theirs," raged a post on X, where the French are compared to pigs who never bathe.

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