{"id":113063,"date":"2025-11-03T13:27:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T13:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/113063\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T13:27:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T13:27:08","slug":"rafhael-barbosas-utopia-lines-up-rejane-faria-and-matamba-joaquim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/113063\/","title":{"rendered":"Rafhael Barbosa’s ‘Utopia’ Lines Up Rejane Faria and Matamba Joaquim"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tRafhael Barbosa<\/a>\u2019s upcoming animated feature \u201cUtopia<\/a>\u201d has lined up lauded Brazilian actor Rejane Faria and French-Angolan anchor Matamba Joaquim. Faria starred in Gabriel Martins\u2019s Sundance breakout \u201cMars One\u201d and Anna Muylaert\u2019s Berlinale entry \u201cThe Best Mother in the World,\u201d while Joaquim starred in Alejandro Amen\u00e1bar\u2019s \u201cThe Captive.\u201d The production also secured Anderson Mahanski, behind Netflix\u2019s animated hit \u201cSuper Drags,\u201d as animation<\/a> director and associate producer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cUtopia\u201d has been selected as one of the pitching projects at Ventana Sur<\/a> Animation!, the section of the prominent Buenos Aires market dedicated to promoting Latin American film and TV within the international scene. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe film, written by Barbosa alongside Werner Salles, is set in 1695 and sees a family of slaves organize a rebellion to flee in search of the utopian Quilombo dos Palmares following a call from the spiritual helm. The group travels a risky path to find the quilombo at the height of a great war. But the war is not the end.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cUtopia,\u201d courtesy of La Ursa Cinematogr\u00e1fica<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking with Variety ahead of Ventana Sur, Barbosa highlights how the story is set in \u201cthe longest-lasting and most organized refuge for enslaved Africans outside of Africa.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s a community that led the biggest resistance movement against slavery in Brazil<\/a>. The film seeks not only to bring this narrative to contemporary audiences but also to reinterpret it from an Afro-futurist and Afro-surrealist perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBarbosa says the team has adopted a mix of techniques for \u201cUtopia,\u201d predominantly 2D cut-out animation. \u201cHowever, the dreamlike layer of the script allows for experimentation with different styles. We constructed the characters\u2019 dreams and visions with 2D frame-by-frame, in a more subjective and poetic style than the other layers of the story.\u201d Amongst the references for the project are Brazilian Luiz Bolognesi\u2019s Annecy winner \u201cA Story of Love and Fury,\u201d Mel Gibson\u2019s \u201cApocalypto,\u201d R\u00e9mi Bezan\u00e7on and Jean-Christophe Lie\u2019s \u201cZarafa\u201d and, most notably, the Angolan animation \u201cNayola: In Search of My Ancestry\u201d by Jos\u00e9 Miguel Ribeiro.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOne of the most elitist segments within an already elitist art form like cinema, animation has a notable deficit of Black professionals in its ranks,\u201d adds the director. \u201cOne of the strengths of \u2018Utopia\u2019 is its commitment to mapping and bringing together a team of black animators around a strong project.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBarbosa\u2019s label La Ursa Cinematogr\u00e1fica is dedicated to original productions by emerging Black artists, with projects that bring contemporary approaches to Black stories to deconstruct stereotypes. It also focuses on changing the perception of Barbosa\u2019s home state of Alagoas within both the national and international scenes. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to establish strong co-production partners in the upcoming years, as funds in Brazil have become more locally specific, allowing us to grow and expand our productions to compete on a global stage,\u201d adds the director.<\/p>\n

\n\tAn emerging state, Alagoas is experiencing a buzzy momentum six decades after its most famous export, Cac\u00e1 Diegues, became one of the founders of Brazil\u2019s burgeoning Cinema Novo. This year, Alagoas had a historic presence at Cannes, with Stella Carneiro\u2019s \u201cThe Cowgirl, the Showgirl and the Pig\u201d playing Directors\u2019 Fortnight, Ulisses Arthur\u2019s \u201cWe Are Not Dreaming\u201d selected for Goes to Cannes and La\u00eds Ara\u00fajo\u2019s \u201cInfantry\u201d selected for the La Fabrique Cin\u00e9ma program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cUtopia,\u201d courtesy of La Ursa Cinematogr\u00e1fica<\/p>\n

\n\tLa Ursa is a driving force in the region. Alongside Est\u00fadio N\u00facleo Zero, it produced Barbosa\u2019s \u201cCavalo,\u201d the first feature film directed by a Black man and produced with public funding in the state. The label is currently working on another five features on top of \u201cUtopia,\u201d including Barbosa\u2019s fantasy film \u201cLook at Me,\u201d which is in post-production, and Stella Carneiro\u2019s feature debut \u201cDaughters of the Mangrove.\u201d La Ursa is also co-producing Werner Salles\u2019s sci-fi feature \u201cHow to Set Up a Scene\u201d with Est\u00fadio N\u00facleo Zero.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cUtopia\u201d is produced by La Ursa Cinematogr\u00e1fica in co-production with Est\u00fadio N\u00facleo Zero and Gr\u00e3o Filmes. Producers are Adriana Pinto, Juliana Lemes, J\u00fania Matsuura and Felipe Guimar\u00e3es, with Anderson Mahanski as an associate producer. The film was awarded the Guilherme Rogato Prize by the city of Macei\u00f3, receiving funds from Brazi\u2019s federal Audiovisual Sector Fund (FSA\/Ancine) for its production, as well as securing funding from the Paulo Gustavo Law, through the State of Alagoas in the Brazilian northeast.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rafhael Barbosa\u2019s upcoming animated feature \u201cUtopia\u201d has lined up lauded Brazilian actor Rejane Faria and French-Angolan anchor Matamba…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9031,1083,146,85,46,73159,34725,59521],"class_list":["post-113063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-animation","tag-brazil","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-rafhael-barbosa","tag-utopia","tag-ventana-sur"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}