"Rosa Morena" received the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs award – the Prêmio Itamaraty – at the São Paulo International Film Festival's closing ceremony on Thursday, 4 November.
Unfamiliar story
Carlos Oliveira's debut feature was well received at the film's opening festival screening, which also marked the film's world premiere, and judging from the Q&A that followed, the audience was moved by a story not too familiar in Brazil. According to one local reviewer, the film is a dense and realistic story full of drama fuelled on the old cliché about rich Europeans hunting for kids to adopt in underdeveloped countries. "But the cliche ends here," the review states.
"Rosa Morena" explores the question of the legitimacy of wealthy, childless people offering poor families with many children to get out of poverty by selling a child. Thomas, a 40-year-old architect, goes to Sao Paulo to realise his dream of becoming a father. Thomas' problem is that, as a single gay man, he can't adopt in Denmark.
First DK-BR production
This first Danish-Brazilian collaboration is produced by Astrid Hytten and Thomas Gammeltoft for Fine & Mellow and, on the Brazilian team, Hank Levine and Ivan Teixeira for Master Shot Media.
"Rosa Morena" is out in Brazilian theatres in March.
São Paulo International Film Festival 21 October - 4 November