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Anita Rocha da Silveira has dreamed up an unconventional, shaky but interesting swipe at Bolsonaro’s authoritarianism

It’s flawed and all over the place in conventional script terms, but there’s real interest in this freaky, peculiar, interestingly directed psychodrama satire from Rio-born artist and film-maker Anita Rocha da Silveira, which takes aim at the conformist-authoritarian patriarchy of Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil.

Mari (Mari Oliveira) is a member of an evangelical Christian young women’s singing group called Michele and the Treasures of the World, who (like the Barden Bellas in Pitch Perfect) sometimes squabble when one of their number does some unrehearsed freestyling in performance; their leader Michele (Lara Tremouroux) is impossibly glamorous and blond with a YouTube channel, discussing topics such as “How to take the perfect Christian selfie”.

The first word we hear in “Medusa” is a spat-out “slut,” and the first song is Siouxsie and the Banshees’ forever haunting “Cities in Dust.” So we know immediately that writer-director Anita Rocha da Silveira isn’t messing around. And neither are her anti-heroines, a group of young Brazilian evangelicals who take their work for the Lord very seriously.

How He would feel about their approach is never addressed — at least, not by them. The girls attend a devoutly religious college, sing as the Treasures of the Lord choir at their megachurch and, when the mood happens to strike, anonymously attack strangers who stray from their idea of feminine purity.

The leaders of the group are Michele (Lara Tremouroux) and her second-in-command Mari (Mari Oliveira), though the latter slips in stature once she’s maimed by a victim who fights back. The scar on her cheek is barely noticeable, but...

You can run but you cannot hide — not even behind a blank mask of devotion.

“Medusa,” Anita Rocha da Silveira’s long-awaited follow-up to her 2015 film “Kill Me Please,” follows Mari (Mari Oliveira) as she harnesses her spiritual devotion into a “Purge”-esque rage against sexually active sinners alongside an all-female gang led by a male cult-like figure, played by Thiago Fragoso. Yet after an attack leaves Mari physically scarred, her entire worldview is torn apart. The film premieres July 29. Watch the trailer exclusively on IndieWire below.

“Nightmares of repressed desires and haunting visions of alluring temptation become undeniable and the urge to scream and release her paralyzing inner demons is more powerful than ever before,” the official description of the film reads. “A neon-tinged genre-bender that gives provocative form to the overwhelming feminine fury coursing through modern life, ‘Medusa’ dares us not to look away.”

Lara Tremouroux, Joana Medeiros,...

Korean festival returns as a full in-person event for the first time since 2019.

The 23rd Jeonju International Film Festival opened with chairman Kim Seung-su announcing a new cinema centre to be built on the spot of the Jeonju Dome, where the opening ceremony was held last night (April 28).

Stars and filmmakers walked the red carpet to applause from an excited audience as in pre-pandemic years, albeit many with masks on at the ever-safety-conscious film festival.

The Jeonju Dome is a temporary structure traditionally erected for the opening and closing ceremonies and other popular events during the annual film festival. Tickets...

Hybrid event ran March 4-13.

Dramas from Hispaniola dominated the jury and audience awards at the hybrid 39th Miami Film Festival as Géssica Généus’s Haiti-set Freda won the $25,000 Knight Marimbas Award and Jose Maria Cabral’s Dominican Republic production Parsley took the audience feature film award.

The festival, which ran both in-theater and virtual presentations and ran from March 4-13, gave special recognition through the Knight Marimbas jury to actor Haztin Navarrete from The Box and actress Mari Oliveira from Medusa.

A third Hispaniola drama, Carajita (Dr-Arg) by Ulises Porra and Silvina Schnicer, was awarded the $10,000 HBO Ibero-American Feature Film Award sponsored by WarnerMedia.

The feature film “Freda” and short film “You Can Always Come Home,” both family dramas, earned top prizes at the 39th edition of Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival. Presented in a hybrid format this year, with both in-theater and virtual presentations, the 2022 Festival ran from March 4-13.

Making its U.S. premiere at this year’s Festival, “Freda,” directed by Géssica Généus, earned the top award for her first feature set in Haiti, the $25,000 Knight Marimbas Award. The winning film was selected by jury members Damon D’Oliveria, April Dobbins and Rubén Peralta Rigaud. Of the film, the jury noted, “this film resonated with all of us for its strong, female-centered narrative, and its exceptional performances from emerging actors. We couldn’t stop thinking about this world and these characters, and we appreciated being immersed in a place that we don’t often see onscreen – portrayed in such a realistic,...

Two family dramas, the feature film Freda and short film You Can Always Come Home, have earned the top prizes at the 39th edition of Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival. Presented in a hybrid format with in-theater and virtual presentations, the 2022 Festival ran from March 4 through tomorrow.

Making its US premiere at this year’s Festival, Freda, directed by Géssica Généus, earned the top award for her first feature. Set in Haiti, the $25,000 Knight Marimbas Award, supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, is an international competition for new narrative feature films that best exemplify richness and resonance for cinema’s future.

The winning film was selected by jury members Damon D’Oliveria, April Dobbins, and Rubén Peralta Rigaud. The jury said, “This film resonated with all of us for its strong, female-centered narrative, and its exceptional performances from emerging actors. We couldn’t stop...

Music Box Films has picked up North American rights to Medusa, a fantasy horror film with a sharp satirical bite from Brazilian director Anita Rocha da Silveira.

Medusa, da Silveira’s follow-up to her well-received debut Kill Me Please, premiered in Cannes in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar and had its North American premiere in Toronto. The film will screen at the AFI festival in Los Angeles on November 13.

Medusa stars Mari Oliveira as Mariana, a 21-year-old trying to keep up appearances and resist temptation, particularly of a sexual nature. At night, she and her girlfriends team up, put on masks, and head out to hunt ...

Music Box Films has picked up North American rights to Medusa, a fantasy horror film with a sharp satirical bite from Brazilian director Anita Rocha da Silveira.

Medusa, da Silveira’s follow-up to her well-received debut Kill Me Please, premiered in Cannes in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar and had its North American premiere in Toronto. The film will screen at the AFI festival in Los Angeles on November 13.

Medusa stars Mari Oliveira as Mariana, a 21-year-old trying to keep up appearances and resist temptation, particularly of a sexual nature. At night, she and her girlfriends team up, put on masks, and head out to hunt ...

Exclusive: Music Box Films has acquired North American rights to Medusa, the well-received thriller-satire by Brazilian writer and director Anita Rocha da Silveira.

The feature debuted at Cannes in the Directors’ Fortnight strand before getting its North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

Medusa follows Mariana (Mari Oliveira), a 21-year-old who belongs to a world where she must do her utmost to keep up the appearance of a perfect woman. In order to resist temptation, she and her girlfriends try their best to control everything and everyone around them. And that includes the town sinners. At night, their girl squad put on masks, hunt and beat up all women who have deviated from the right path. However, the day will come when the urge to scream will be stronger than it ever has been.

The social and political critique, which touches on themes of sexual liberation, violence, and religious fixation in Brazil,...

Brazilian writer-director Anita Rocha de Silveira made a striking feature debut six years ago with “Kill Me Please,” a uniquely antic yet unnerving cocktail of adolescent sexual awakening, giallo thriller elements and art-house ambiguity. Its boldness extends to the slightly bigger canvas and slightly older heroines in “Medusa.” Again offering a queasily satirical take on matters of sex and violence among emotionally flammable youth, this sophomore effort adds a more explicit sociopolitical critique.

The coiled-spring tension that kept “Please” taut despite its diffuse storytelling goes somewhat slack here, making for a less successful whole. Still, the audacity of de Silveira’s concept — in which enrollees at an upscale Christian college indulge in secret, moralizing vigilante mayhem — and .

Fans of the earlier film will immediately feel at home in a logical progression of its content, as the first few minutes here present girl-mob viciousness, then an equally bizarre musical number. Eight...

Writer-director Anita Rocha da Silveira has created an evangelical town of purity in her Brazilian-set sophomore film Medusa. It’s the type of place all Christians wish they could send their children because they know they will be carried into God’s light. The young men form a militia group to honor His will against deviants that dare embrace sin. The young women form a gang in the likeness of their heroine angel, donning white masks to confront and assault the so-called “sluts” and “whores” who dare walk alone at night in search of carnal pleasure. Their violence? All part of God’s plan. Their chastity? A test to prove themselves worthy of pairing off with a like-minded believer to be married and live according to God’s unyielding law.

This existence becomes Mari’s (Mari Oliveira) calling. She’s second-in-command of their virginal posse and best friend to their leader,...

Autumn in the city is the time to reevaluate goals and see what progress has been made: Move towards new goals, try different teachers, and attend workshops as you prepare for auditions. We’ve gathered plenty of information for you to leap in and keep the motivation going. Performances Dresden Semperoper Ballett will be making its Joyce debut Oct. 31–Nov. 4. Presenting a blend of classical and contemporary works, these elegant pieces are not to miss. Grab your tickets here! New York Theater Ballet presents “Legends and Visionaries” at Saint Mark’s Church Nov. 2–4. The company, voted Best Company of the Year by Dance Europe, will be dancing works by Gemma Bond, David Gordon, Richard Alston, and Jose Limon. More information and tickets here. Auditions Mariana Oliveira is seeking male and female ballet dancers for the Center for Ballet and Arts Fellowship Residency at Nyu. The work to be developed is a narrative ballet exploration.

"Remember what the pastor said: 'Blood is life.'" Cinema Slate has revealed an official Us trailer for an indie horror film from Brazil titled Kill Me Please (also just Mate-me por favor in Portuguese). The film is about a group of high school girls who waste their days wandering through the neighbor of Barra da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro. When a series of murders begins to "terrorize the neighborhood" they develop a morbid curiosity with the victims, leading them to some dangerous places. Starring Valentina Herszage, Júlia Roliz, Mariana Oliveira, and Dora Freind as the four leading ladies. Kill Me Please is "partly inspired by the 1980s teen slasher genre" and is described as a "disturbing and funny dive into teenage sexuality, spirituality, loneliness and fragility." This actually looks damn good, I'm looking forward to checking it out. Here's the official trailer (+ posters) for Anita Rocha da Silveira's Kill Me Please,...

After stopping by festivals such as SXSW, Venice, and New Directors/New Films, Anita Rocha da Silveira’s Kill Me Please will finally be hitting U.S. theaters next month. The Brazilian coming-of-age meets slow-burning horror film follows a group of high school girls who start to become obsessed with the victims of recent murders in their area. Ahead of a release, a new trailer has now landed.

“With its inky, stalking sense of darkness and warped surrealism, David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. is an obvious touchstone for Silveira’s sensibility, but her visual milieu feels just as evocative of disparate directors such as Carlos Reygadas, Céline Sciamma, and Harmony Korine,” we said in our review. “Her camerawork doesn’t so much follow as glide, and Silveira isn’t shy about starbursts of color (e.g. a refracting neon purple prism from a headlight). The sequences are carefully composed but not immune to playful tricks,...