20 Years After 07/07: The Ongoing Fight for Justice for Jean Charles

Although Jean Charles (Henrique Goldman, 2009) and Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles Menezes (2025) recount the same tragedy, they offer very different perspectives. The former, a Brazilian drama film, and the latter, a British investigative miniseries, approach the event from entirely different perspectives. This contrast influences how audiences engage with the story and frames responsibility, memory, and justice. Both preserve the painful legacy of the events: 20 years since the London bombings and the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, a working-class immigrant.

This analysis contrasts the emotional storytelling of the 2009 Brazilian film with the procedural format of the British series to explore how representation shapes public memory, both personally and politically.

Jean Charles by Jean Charles

In Jean Charles (2009), the filmmakers evoke sympathy for his family and highlight the injustice of his death. Jean Charles, an electrician from the Brazilian countryside, moved to London in search of better opportunities. He supported relatives both in Brazil and the UK through stable, albeit low-paying jobs. In London, he became a community figure, helping fellow Brazilians navigate immigrant life with charm, flexibility, and a resourceful, distinctly Brazilian approach to problem-solving.

In contrast, Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles Menezes (Disney+, 2025) presents him as part of a broader narrative, despite its title suggesting a focus on him. While it affirms his innocence, the series shifts the focus to the wider investigation and political failures that followed. The film portrays Jean not just as a victim, but as one of many working-class immigrants trying to build a life in a city that sees them as disposable. A hard-working man juggling informal jobs and his electrician self-employed, dreaming of a home of his own.

From Brazilian Technician to Anonymous Migrant

Both works confront the stark inequalities between Brazil and the UK. London’s modern infrastructure contrasts with Gonzaga’s dirt roads, reflecting Jean Charles' humble beginnings. This highlights the gravity of his journey—from a well-known figure in his tight-knit Brazilian neighborhood to an anonymous migrant in a foreign city. Today, people memorialize his name both at Stockwell Underground station and at the entrance to his hometown.

The Camera’s Role in Storytelling

Despite its dramatic tone, Jean Charles (2009) incorporates documentary-style elements to ground the story in realism. Two non-professional actors play themselves. While handheld cameras evoke the gaze of an unseen cousin, creating an intimate sense of presence.

The Disney+ miniseries uses frenetic editing, shifting perspectives, and chaotic visual rhythm to reflect the uncertainty, panic, and contradictions of the real investigation. These choices distance the viewer emotionally while engaging them analytically. The series also incorporates archive footage, deepening the sense of realism.

The Divergence in Jean Charles’ Story

In Brazil, people felt the death of Jean Charles de Menezes immediately and intensely. The case quickly became a symbol of police brutality, sparking widespread public outrage. Brazilians saw Jean Charles’ story as a reflection of systemic failures and expressed solidarity with his family, especially those abroad. The 2009 film captures this emotional weight, using a dramatic narrative and characters that evoke this collective empathy.

In contrast, in the UK, misinformation and impersonal treatment shaped the story. Jean Charles was portrayed as a suspect and framed within post-9/11 tensions, fueling fear of immigrants. The British miniseries, with its analytical approach, reflects this coldness, focusing on uncovering government and police failures.

This difference is evident in the productions. While the Brazilian film emotionally connects with the audience, focusing on the family and community, the British miniseries distances itself, emphasizing the investigation and political failures behind the tragedy.

Justice for Jean Charles Remains

This July marks one year since the UK riots, sparked by misinformation about the stabbing of three girls and fueled by hate, racism, and Islamophobia. People set fires in hotels and mosques; they erupted in physical and verbal assaults nationwide. Authorities arrested nearly 400 people.

This July also marks 20 years since the 2005 London bombings—and 20 years since the unjust killing of Jean Charles. These anniversaries collide in a social climate where xenophobia is rising, and anti-immigration rhetoric is becoming policy.

Every time an ethnicity form asks for classification, Brazilians often force themselves to tick 'other'—sometimes twice—often alongside Arabs. Jean Charles’ story intertwines with those Muslim migrants, all part of a larger narrative of suspicion, fear, and erasure. He became a victim of both police violence and a system that viewed him through the lens of 'otherness.' If justice is blind, then the British Office for National Statistics is surely blindfolded.

Meanwhile, police statements still rely on vague, racially coded descriptions—'Asian-looking men,' 'men in burkas'—reinforcing harmful stereotypes, unlike his denim jacket.  The media quickly labelled Jean Charles a violent, suspicious Latino, a drug dealer, a terrorist threat with fake news.

This scapegoating of immigrants is common—fear and stereotypes fuel a narrative that dehumanizes and reinforces them. The danger lies in audiences unconsciously absorbing these portrayals, which can contribute to their alignment and fuel their internalised prejudices.  

And yet, both the Brazilian film and the British miniseries serve as crucial counter-narratives. They amplify Jean Charles’ story—far from a closed case, far from a footnote. They restore his humanity, reframing him not as a suspect, but as a victim of systemic negligence. One screen shows the personal grief of a family; the other, the political web that enabled his death.

Justice4Jean is the campaign and family efforts to seek justice and accountability following the fatal police shooting of Jean Charles.

Jean Charles present

In a time when screens manipulate more than reveal, and scrolling replaces reflection, these two productions still resonate—across two decades, two languages, and one enduring fight for justice. Today, social media platforms shape how events and individuals are framed in the public consciousness. At the same time, growing global political division, rising nationalism, and anti-immigration rhetoric heavily shape it.

If justice is blind, why do bullets always know their target, especially when it comes to minorities? Citizens reduced to paper, mere negative numbers in statistics, subject does-not-matter in the news headlines. Ghosts haunting the lives of ‘pure blood’ Britons. Ironically, this is the same country that celebrates Indian curry, Portuguese codfish, and Brazilian footballers, claiming them as its own. The same country that invades others constantly, but refuses to share home to open the door for those seeking refuge or better life conditions.

If justice is blind, what is the prejudice?