Why is Sound of Freedom considered the most controversial film of the year?

Considered the most controversial film of the year, Freedom sound arrived in Brazilian cinemas this Thursday, September 21st, adapting the real story of Tim Ballarda former US government agent who abandoned his job to found the Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), a non-profit organization combating child sex trafficking.

Since its debut in the United States in July this year, Freedom sound becomes a cinematic phenomenon. In the country alone, the independent production, carried out with the help of crowdfunding, has raised more than US$180 million (around R$873 million at current prices) at the box office to date.

What is the story of “Sound of Freedom”?

Freedom sound is the film adaptation of the story of Tim Ballarda special agent for the North American government, responsible for arresting pedophiles for more than a decade, saving the lives of countless children, even though he never took any of them back to their homes.

Faced with this reality, Ballardplayed in the film by Jim Caviezel (Jesus Christ in The passion of christ2004), sees the possibility of changing the focus of his work and, on his first mission, he is successful and ends up recovering the small Miguel (Lucas Ávila), returning him to his father, Roberto (José Zúñiga, Twilight).

However, the sister of Miguel, Rocío (Cristal Aparicio), who was kidnapped with him, is still missing, which leads Ballarda Christian man, married and father of five children, to put himself in the place of Roberto and dedicate its next steps to rescuing the girl and many other children, victims of international sex trafficking. Watch the trailer:

What is so controversial about the film?

Sharing the criticism, Freedom sound caught the attention of great personalities in the United States, such as the actor Mel Gibsonthe former president donald trump and the businessman Elon Musk for its alleged allusion to the conspiracy theory known as QAnonwhich is quite popular among the far right in the USA.

The theory of QAnon conspires in the existence of a global network made up of Satan worshipers, pedophiles and cannibals responsible for child sex trafficking. The false narrative still says that Trump would be responsible for ending this network and, therefore, its members would be conspiring to remove him from power, which is why Trump would not have been re-elected to the presidency – which resulted in the attacks on the United States Congress in early 2021.

The title of the film reinforces the theory, as Freedom sound puts a typical American citizen – Christian, family man and conservative – to fight against an international child trafficking network. Although the film does not make any allegory for alleged left-wing pedophile machinations, it became difficult to separate the controversy from the film after Cazeviel publicly support the conspiracy theory.

Furthermore, the former president of the United States is one of the film’s biggest supporters, which would reinforce the relationship between Freedom sound the theory QAnon. The businessman, in addition to publicizing the production, saying that it was a portrait of what should be fought at all costs, also held an exclusive screening of the film at a private club in New Jersey.

What do the filmmakers say?

In an interview with Los Angeles Times, Alejandro Monteverdedirector of Freedom soundstated that, initially, he did not want to get involved with the controversies surrounding the film: “I don’t want to be part of anything that falls into the area of ​​politics. So, when I started to see the division, my first instinct was to run. However, Later, I realized that, because I distanced myself, the story wasn’t being shown”, he declared.

In the conversation, the filmmaker also admitted that the fact that Jim Caviezelthe protagonist of the film, is a strong supporter of QAnonamong other far-right conspiracy theories, had an impact on the promotion of the film, but this was not aligned with “how I am as a person, as a filmmaker, and as a storyteller”.

*text originally published by CinemaBuzz