Praia Formosa

Like any industrious coastal town or city, Rio de Janeiro's port region has always been a hub for the confluence of cultures, nationalities and identities. Since 2013, it has also formed the basis of a research project for filmmaker Julia De Simone. Her third feature-length film – which was supported by IFFR’s Hubert Bals Fund in 2014 – shifts away from straightforward documentary and towards a more fictionalised form as it presents the story of Muanza, a woman born in the Kingdom of Kongo in the early nineteenth century and trafficked to Brazil, who awakens to find herself in the present, roaming the streets of Rio’s rapidly changing port region, known as ‘Pequena Africa’, or Little Africa.

The middle and most expansive entry in a trilogy that began with the short O porto (IFFR 2014) and continues with the forthcoming mid-length film Rapacity, Praia Formosa is a unique take on slow burn cinema. With its rich aesthetic, characterised by the beauty and elegance of its frames, the film seamlessly weaves together past and present, to create a fascinating exploration of female empowerment and the bonds of sisterhood, cultural roots and decolonisation that transcends mere storytelling.

– Vanja Kaludjercic