WELCOME, VIOLETA! by Brazilian Director
Fernando Fraiha Will Have its World Premiere
at the 2022 Brooklyn Film Festival, June 3 – 12
Produced by Rodrigo Teixeira
(CALL ME BY YOUR NAME), the Psychological Thriller Starring Darío Grandinetti (TALK TO HER)
and Débora Fabella, Is a Gripping Portrayal of
the Creative Process and the Lengths
One’s Willing to Go for their Art
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Welcome, Violeta! (Bem-vinda, Violeta!), the second feature film from Brazilian director and writer Fernando Fraiha, produced by Rodrigo Teixeira (Call Me By Your Name; The Witch; The Lighthouse), and written by Fraiha and Inés Bortagaray (Invisible Life) is set to have its World Premiere in the Narrative Feature competition at the 2022 edition of the Brooklyn Film Festival, taking place in person and online from June 3–12 in New York City.
Based on the novel Mountain Range by Daniel Galera, Welcome, Violeta! stars renowned Argentine actor Darío Grandinetti (Talk to Her; Rojo) as Holden, the charismatic leader of a writing residency set deep in the towering Argentine Andes mountain range. The film tells the story of Ana (played by Brazilian actress Débora Falabella), a young woman eager to complete her novella Violeta at the well-known “End of the World” literary laboratory.
Over the course of her stay at the remote residence, Ana becomes more and more familiar with Holden’s idiosyncratic methods that require the participating artists to abandon their own identities and live emotionally and psychologically as their characters. Captivated by her artistic investigation, Ana immerses herself wholly into the method and starts living as Violeta, until her fiction loses control.
Referencing the director’s own experiences as a young person entrapped by a cult-like artistic community, Welcome, Violeta! deftly explores the nuanced intersections of creativity, vulnerability, personal identity, and the potential for emotional and ideological coercion when one surrenders fully to their craft. With stellar performances by Falabella and Grandinetti set alongside spellbinding cinematography and sound design, the psychological thriller brings together a team of internationally-renowned industry players from Brazil and Argentina and confirms Fraiha as a talent to watch in the director’s seat.
Brooklyn Film Festival Screenings:
Online: Friday, June 3 to Sunday, June 12
In Person: Saturday, June 4, 8pm at Windmill Studios |
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| WELCOME, VIOLETA! Bem-vinda, Violeta! Brazil/Argentina, 2021, 107 min. In Spanish and Portuguese with English subtitles. Director: Fernando Fraiha; Screenplay: Fernando Fraiha and Inés Bortagaray; Producers: Bianca Villar, Fernando Fraiha, Karen Castanho, Rodrigo Teixeira and Nicolás Grosso; Production Companies: Biônica Filmes, Le Tiro Cine and RT Features; Cinematography: Gustavo Hadba; Camera: Mario Franca; Production Design: Mariela Rípodas; Art Direction: Catalina Oliva; Editor: Sabrina Wilkins, AMC, Fernando Fraiha, Fernando Epstein; Sound: Miriam Biderman, Ricardo Reis; Composer: O Grivo; Executive Production: Justine Otondo, Nicolás Grosso; Costume Design: Valentina Bari, Lili Piekar; Hair: Ricardo Molina; Make-Up: Beatushka Wojtowicz; Cast: Débora Falabella, Darío Grandinetti, Germán de Silva, María Ucedo, Freddy Johnson, Jenny Moule, Pablo Sigal, Mariano Sayavedra.
About the director:
Director-producer Fernando Fraiha was born in São Paulo, Brazil and studied architecture and business. He started in movies at twenty-five years old by editing documentaries and working in drama plays as a video artist. After directing and writing short films, documentaries, and small TV show pilots, his first feature as a filmmaker was La Vingança (El Revenge) in 2016, an international co-production between Brazil and Argentina which won the Jury’s Special Mention at the Rencontres du Cinéma Sud-América of Marseille 2017; the Best Director prize at the 20th edition of the Brooklyn Film Festival 2017; and the Audience Best Feature Film prize at the VI Festival Internazionale di Cinema Brasiliano 2017. In partnership with TV QUASE, Fernando is the director and one of the creators of the show “Choque de Cultura” (Cultural Shock) (2015-2018) which has four seasons on YouTube and Rede Globo. He is also one of the directors and screenwriters of the series “Nobody’s Looking” (2019) on Netflix, which was awarded the Best Comedy prize at the International Emmy of 2020. Besides being one of the founding partners of Biônica Filmes, his production company, Fraiha has also produced international feature films including Patti Cake$ by Geremy Jasper and Wasp Network by Olivier Assayas. In 2020, he shot his second feature film, titled Welcome, Violeta! based on the novel Mountain Range by Daniel Galera. |
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