Brazilian Bonanza
16.02.2024 - 15:13
/ variety.com
Anna Marie de la Fuente Top Brazilian titles at the Berlin Festival and EFM: “Betânia,” (Marcelo Botta) Botta’s feature debut, produced by Salvatore Filmes, associate produced by Ventre Studio, selected for Berlin’s Panorama. Set in stunning but barren Brazilian sand dunes, Betânia, 65, rebuilds amid global collapse. After losing her husband to a salty diet common in electricity-deprived areas, she seeks solace in a new village, cherishing its traditions.
Sales: MPM Premium “The Best Friend,” (Allan Deberton) By Deberton, director of award-winning “Pacarrete,” co-produced by Ceara-based Deberton Filmes and Telecine. During a quiet beach trip to Canoa Quebrada, Lucas reunites with his old college friend Felipe, whose free-spirited nature sparks feelings of nostalgia. Sales: Deberton Filmes “Carnival is Over,” (Fernando Coimbra) A much awaited title from helmer-scribe (“A Wolf at the Door,” “Narcos”), now in post.
Winner of a Sundance Institute global filmmaking award, the thriller centers on Regina and Valerio who live an opulent lifestyle in Rio as heirs to the town’s biggest mobster. They want out of crime. Little hope there.
Gullane produces with Fados Filmes, Globo Filmes, Telecine, Videodrome. Sales: Playtime “Cidade; Campo,” (Juliana Rojas) Produced by Brazil’s Dezenove Films and Globo Filmes with France’s Good Fortune Films and Germany’s Sutor Kolonko, with genre auteur Rojas (“Good Manners”) directing and writing two tales of migration that unravel memories and echoes of the past: Joana tries to rebuild her life in São Paulo after a flood submerges her land; Flavia, grappling with the loss of her father, relocates with her wife Mara to inherit his farm. “The Funeral,” (Carolina Markowicz) From Markowicz (“Toll”),
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