Resumo:
The research work set out to investigate the relationships between the right to a dignified existence, the struggle for social justice and the realization of human rights. The film/documentary Close-Up was chosen as the starting point for building connections between such broad themes. It is a work of art that tells the real story of Houssein Sabzian, a poor man and film lover, who pretended to be a famous Iranian film director, deceiving a middle-class family, who welcomed and respected him as a great artist, until he was unmasked and arrested for fraud. The film portrays his trial and his confession, and presents the dubious face of the criminal who does not seek material goods but mutual recognition and the ability to share creation with other people. After presenting Sabzian's story, the work will discuss the notion of existential minimum: the definition of its content, its legal basis and, especially, its potential to promote emancipation or to maintain the structures of social inequalities. With support from Martha Nussbaum's formulations and her capabilities approach, the rich and fruitful relationship between art and law will be presented, and the thesis that interdisciplinary study can enrich legal theory will be supported. Other authors such as Jacques Rancière, Herrera Flores and Amartya Sen will be evoked with the aim of densifying the concept of existential minimum and proposing an expansion of its content based on the approach to capabilities and relationships between law and art.
