The survivor’s spirit

• Main Author: Mônica Mourão Lara Netto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto de Comunicação e Informação Científica e Tecnológica em Saúde (Icict) da Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) 2020-06-01
• Series: RECIIS
• Subjects: documentário; sistema único de saúde; national health service; reforma sanitária; bem-estar social.
• Online Access: https://www.reciis.icict.fiocruz.br/index.php/reciis/article/view/2013

In 2018, the SUS – Sistema Unifiado de Saúde (Unifid Health System) celebrated the 30th anniversary of its setting up in Brazil. Despite its many achievements in these three decades, nowadays SUS faces new challenges which were imposed by a liberal and conservative agenda ongoing in the country. In this context, the documentary The Spirit of ‘45 (2013), directed by Ken Loach, which highlights the creation of the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom, is a very important fim. Addressing citizenship and the common good as major themes, the movie shows how it is possible by revisiting the past to awaken the combative spirit in favour of a fairer and more solidary society, in order to prioritize the population’s wellbeing instead of the profi and to point out ways to defend SUS as an achievement of the Brazilian people.