LEVANTE - Power Alley (2023 | BR/FR/UY | 99mins)
World Sales - M-appeal
LEVANTE - Power Alley (2023 | BR/FR/UY | 99mins)
World Sales - M-appeal
LEVANTE - Power Alley (2023 | BR/FR/UY | 99mins)
World Sales - M-appeal
Synopsis
On the eve of a future-defining championship, promising volleyball player Sofia (17) is faced with an unwanted pregnancy. Seeking an illegal termination, she becomes the target of a fundamentalist group determined to stop her at any cost – but neither Sofia nor those who love her are willing to surrender to the blind fervor of the swarm.
Premiere in Semaine de la Critique Cannes 2023, FIPRESCI AWARD.
Levante is produced by Arissas (Brazil), Manjericão Filmes (Brazil), In Vivo Films (France) and Cimarrón (Uruguay).
Sales: M-Appeal Germany.
Awards
2024 IFFR - International Film Festival Rotterdam - BEST YOUNG AUDIENCE AWARD
2024 Bergamo Film Meeting - 1st. BEST FILM AWARD
2024 La Pan African Film Festival- BEST FIRST FILM AWARD
2024 OFF CAMERA - KRAKOW - GRAND PRIZE
2024 ZINEGOAK - DIVERSITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD, LESBIANISM AND GENDER AWARD
2023 PSFF - Palm Springs Film Fest- BEST IBERO-AMERICAN FILM AWARD
2023 Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de La Habana - BEST FIRST FILM AWARD
2023 Queer Streifen- BEST FILM AUDIENCE AWARD
2023 FestAruanda, Brazil - BEST FILM, BEST SCRIPT, BEST LEADING CAST, BEST SUPPORTING CAST, BEST SOUND, BEST COSTUME DESIGN
2023 Huelva, Spain - BEST FILM (Camilo Award), BEST FILM (Amma Award)
2023 Braunschweig, Germany - BEST FEMALE DIRECTOR, Tilda Award
2023 Mix Brasil - BEST FILM, BEST CAST, PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR (Ayomi Domenica)
2023 Montreal IFF New Cinema - BEST LGBTQIA+ FILM (FIERTÉ AWARD)
2023 Festival do Rio - BEST DIRECTOR, BEST EDITOR
2023 Biarritz Amerique Latine - BEST FILM
2023 Semaine de La Critique, Cannes - FIPRESCI AWARD, Best Film Parallel Section
"A celebration of queer sorority in the face of Brazilian conservatism."
Screendaily
"Pop, sexy and sporty manifesto on queer sorority"
(Telerama)
"Powerful manifesto on gender, diversity and freedom"
Scream & Yell
"A mature debut film. Halla really has something to say. No wonder that the film stood out"
Estadão, Brasil
Menarca, 2020 - shortfilm
MENARCA (BR | 23mins | short film)
Available at MUBI worldwide and Canal+ (France)
MENARCA (BR | 23mins | short film)
Available at MUBI worldwide and Canal+ (France)
Menarca (22'/Brazil/ 2020)
Produced by Ensaio de Orquestra and Ano Zero
Synopsis
In a Brazilian village infested with piranhas, Nanã and Mel are fast growing into adolescence as they dream of ways of protecting themselves against a seemingly inescapable violence. When a mysterious body appears tangled in a fisherman's net, they learn what might be their ultimate protection.
Premiere in Semaine de la Critique Cannes 2020,
Licensed by Canal+ and MUBI.
Awards and Screenings
World Premiere in Semaine de la Critique Cannes 2020 at the Cinemathéque Française, Prague Cinematheque, Morelia Film Festival.
Winner of the Grand Prize Best Short film Award - Oscar qualified
Nouveau Cinema Montreal l Official Selection,
Kurzfilmtage Winterthur l Official Selection, *Promotional Award,
Festival Biarritz Amerique Latine l
Official Selection, Curta Cinema l Official Selection - * Best Director Award,
Bogoshorts l Official Selection,
Festival del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de la Habana
Official Selection, Festival de Tiradentes l Official Selection
Panorama Coisa de Cinema l Official Selection
Tampere International Film Festival l Official Selection International Competition
Glasgow Short Film Festival 2020 l Official Selection Scared Shortless
Glasgow Short Film Festival 2024 l Official Selection Folklore
Cinelatino de Toulose * Best Short Film -Audience Award
Seattle International Film Festival
Busan International Film Festival
Brussels Film Festival
São Paulo Short Film Festival .
"Menarca is a biting film on every level, a reinterpretation of the myth of the vagina dentata ("the toothed vagina") and a welcomed feminist call to arms. The poison of toxic masculinity threatens Nanã and Mel, who are saved by a fish and a woman: Lillah Halla’s perfect high-wire act between the magic realism of a fairytale and a realistic, stifling atmosphere (ageless, though it echoes present-day Brazil) infers the very essence and turns up the heat before the punk explosion finale.​"
(Léo Soesanto, critic and short film coordinator Semaine de la Critique Cannes)
"For the mastery use of feminine imagery charged with a very poetical but in the same time meaningful atmosphere. "
​(Award Statement from the Jury- Best Short Film Award- GOLDEN OWL at TIFF -Tirana).
"This is a biting film indeed, chewing toxic masculinity in Brazil to spit it out in a loud punk scream. The film finds a perfect balance between magical realism and a realistic setting to deliver a very timely warning. The jury gives the Promotional Award to «Menarca» by Lillah Halla to ensure that the director’s voice will be heard.”​
(Award statement from the Jury- Kurzfilmtage Winterthur )
about
Lillah Halla is a Brazilian director and screenwriter. They graduated in Directing and Screenwriting from the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión de Cuba (2010–2014), where they currently teach as a guest professor.
Their debut feature, LEVANTE (Brazil/France/Uruguay, 2023), premiered at Semaine de la Critique at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received the FIPRESCI Award. The film has since won more than 50 international awards, including numerous Best Film prizes, and has been distributed in over 20 territories worldwide.
Their short film MENARCA (Brazil, 2020) also premiered at Semaine de la Critique in Cannes and was acquired by Canal+. The film screened and received awards at festivals internationally, and was selected as MUBI’s Film of the Day in 2022.
Current projects include WOMB (in development), produced by Junafilm Hamburg and supported by MOIN Filmförderung and the NEST program, and GOLDEN BALLS (in financing), a coproduction between Brazil, France, the Netherlands, and Uruguay. GOLDEN BALLS was selected for NEXT STEP II 2024 at Semaine de la Critique and for the Junge Akademie program at Akademie der Künste Berlin (2021–2024). In 2024, the project received initial development support from the Hubert Bals Fund (IFFR).
Alongside their work as a director, Lillah has collaborated across film and theater as a writer, dramaturg, script consultant, and producer. They worked as script consultant on Rule 34 (Golden Leopard, Locarno 2022), and as script consultant and line producer on Island of the Hungry Ghosts (Best Documentary, Tribeca 2019; Independent Spirit Award nominee, 2020). They also co-wrote Ensaio (Forum, Berlinale 2019), commissioned by the São Paulo Biennial, and collaborated as co-dramaturg on Stabat Mater, recipient of the Shell Award for Best Dramaturgy in Brazil (2020), recently presented at FIND – Festival Internationale Neue Dramatik at the Schaubühne Berlin.
In 2014, Lillah co-founded Vermelha, a São Paulo-based film collective dedicated to supporting women and queer filmmakers in Brazil.
Their work and research have been supported by institutions and programs including Concordia University’s Department of Fine Arts in Montreal, the Locarno Academy, TIFF Share Her Journey, Berlinale Talents, Talent Paradiso, NEXT STEP at Semaine de la Critique, and the NEST program from MOIN Filmförderung in Hamburg. They were also an artist-in-residence at Akademie der Künste Berlin.
Filmography
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GOLDEN BALLS (feature film), in development
NEXT STEP II Semaine de la Critique, Akademie der Künste
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LEVANTE (Brazil/France/Uruguay 2023), feature film
Produced by Arissas (Brazil), Manjericão Filmes (Brazil), In Vivo Films (France) and Cimarrón (Uruguay).
Sales: M-Appeal Germany.
Premiere in Semaine de la Critique Cannes 2023, FIPRESCI AWARD.
Awards
2024 IFFR - International Film Festival Rotterdam - BEST YOUNG AUDIENCE AWARD
2024 Bergamo Film Meeting - 1st. BEST FILM AWARD
2024 La Pan African Film Festival- BEST FIRST FILM AWARD
2023 PSFF - Palm Springs Film Fest- BEST IBERO-AMERICAN FILM AWARD
2023 Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de La Habana - BEST FIRST FILM AWARD
2023 Queer Streifen- BEST FILM AUDIENCE AWARD
2023 FestAruanda, Brazil - BEST FILM, BEST SCRIPT, BEST LEADING CAST, BEST SUPPORTING CAST, BEST SOUND, BEST COSTUME DESIGN
2023 Huelva, Spain - BEST FILM (Camilo Award), BEST FILM (Amma Award)
2023 Braunschweig, Germany - BEST FEMALE DIRECTOR, Tilda Award
2023 Mix Brasil - BEST FILM, BEST CAST, PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR (Ayomi Domenica)
2023 Montreal IFF New Cinema - BEST LGBTQIA+ FILM (FIERTÉ AWARD)
2023 Festival do Rio - BEST DIRECTOR, BEST EDITOR
2023 Biarritz Amerique Latine - BEST FILM
2023 Semaine de La Critique, Cannes - FIPRESCI AWARD, Best Film Parallel Section ​
WENN ICH NICHT TANZEN KANN, IST DAS NICHT MEINE REVOLUTION (Germany/Brazil, 2023), short film in post production.
Produced by Chromosom Film- Julia Niethammer with the support of Nordmedia and Kulturstiftung Hannover und Region.
Menarca (22'/Brazil/ 2020)
Produced by Ensaio de Orquestra and Ano Zero
Licensed by Canal+ and MUBI.
* World Premiere in Semaine de la Critique Cannes 2020 at the Cinemathéque Française, Prague Cinematheque, Morelia Film Festival.
*Festivals: Nouveau Cinema Montreal l Official Selection, Kurzfilmtage Winterthur l Official Selection, *Promotional Award, Festival Biarritz Amerique Latine l Official Selection, Curta Cinema l Official Selection - * Best Director Award, Bogoshorts l Official Selection, Festival del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano de la Habana l Official Selection, Festival de Tiradentes l Official Selection, Panorama Coisa de Cinema l Official Selection, Tampere International Film Festival l Official Selection International Competition , Glasgow Short Film Festival l Selection Scared Shortless, Cinelatino de Toulose * Best Short Film -Audience Award; Seattle International Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival, Brussels Film Festival, São Paulo Short Film Festival . Winner of the Grand Prize Best Short film (GOLDEN OWL) in Tirana Film Festival, now Academy Award (Oscar Qualified - ongoing). Upcoming ones to be announced soon! Menarca is nominated to the Grand Brazilian Film Award (ongoing), nominated to the Best Script Award ( Abra - ongoing).
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If I can´t dance, this is not my Revolution (16'/Cuba/2014)
Produced by EICTV/Cuba.
* Awarded Best Film (FEPEC Prize, Janela do Cinema de Recife), Best Experimental Film (Festival des Films du Monde - Montreal) and Best Director (Semana dos Realizadores - Rio de Janeiro)
* Official Selection Biarritz Amerique Latine International Competition, Films du Monde Montreal, Janela Internacional de Cinema do Recife, Semana dos Realizadores, RJ, Brazil, Drama Film Festival Greece, Uruguay International Film Festival
*Locarno Academy Screening 2014
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Collaborations
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Rule 34 (90'/Brazil/2022)
Script consultant. Directed by Júlia Murat.
*Golden Leopard 2022 in Locarno.
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O Ensaio (51'/Brazil/2019)
Co-writer. Directed by Tamar Guimarães.Produced by São Paulo Biennial of Arts, Danish Arts Council
* Commissioned by the São Paulo Biennial of Arts 2018
* Premiere at the Berlinale Forum Expanded 2019.
Island of Hungry Ghosts (98'/Australia/Germany/2018)
Script consultant and Line Producer. Directed by Gabrielle Brady. Produced by Chromossom Film (Germany), Samm Hailay (UK), Sarah Perks (Australia) and The Guardian (UK)
* Nominated for Independent Spirits Award 2020
* Awarded Best Documentary at Tribeca Film Festival; Human Rights Award at IDFA; Buyens-Chagoll Award at Vision du Reel; Special Jury Mention at Edinburgh Film Festival; Grand Jury Prize for Best Film at Mumbai International Film Festival
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Fremdverstümmelung (30´Germany 2007)
Camera and editor of the short film. Directed by Christoph Schlingensief, in the frame of the Freax Opera in Bonn.
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Theater collaborations (selection)
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Cam Girl 1001 nights- trial version Under development (Brazil)
Co-dramaturg. Directed by Janaína Leite.
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Stabat Mater (CCSP, São Paulo, Brazil 2019)
Co-dramaturg and director to the cinematic content. Directed by Janaína Leite.
* Awarded Best National Dramaturgy ( Prêmio Shell de Melhor Dramaturgia 2020)
FIND 2026, Schaubühne, Berlin
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Cinema Falado (Sesc Pompéia, São Paulo, 2018)
Co-director and scriptwriter as Coletivo Vermelha.
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Der Fliegender Holländer (Teatro Amazonas, Manaus 2007)
Video-editor. Directed by Christoph Schlingensief.
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Freax (Bethovenfest Bonn 2007)
Video-editor. Directed by Christoph Schlingensief. From this Intervention the film Fremdverstümmelung was born.
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Trem Fantasma, Prototyp einer Operngeisterbahn (Sesc Belenzinho, 2007)
Video-director. Directed by Christoph Schlingensief.
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Anjo Negro (Volksbühne Berlin, Sesc Vila Mariana, Theaterformen 2007)
Video-director. Directed by Frank Castorf.
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Os Sertões (Teatro Oficina, 2004)
Video-director. Directed by José Celso Martinez Correa.
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NEWS​
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2026
Lillah Halla was part of the selection committee for the Cena 15 Filmmakers Grant at Dragão do Mar, Ceará, Brasil.
Lillah Halla served on the jury of the Mastercard OFF CAMERA Festival in Kraków.
GOLDEN BALLS participated in CineMart Rotterdam.
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2025
Together with Junafilm, Lillah Halla received MOIN Filmförderung development support for the feature project WOMB, in Hmburg.
Lillah Halla served on the jury of FRAPA – Screenwriting Festival Porto Alegre Brasil, alongside Ernesto Sotto and Alice Marcone.
2024
Lillah Halla served on the Jury for the Hamburg Production Award at Hamburg Filmfest, together with Fathi Akim and Melanie Andernach.
Lillah Halla and Golden Balls were part of the NEXT STEP II program from Semaine de la Critique.
Levante has been chosen as one of the 6 finalists competing to represent Brazil at the 2025 Oscars!
Lillah Halla is now a member of Film Fatales, USA
Lillah Halla served on the jury for the Cabíria Script Award, as part of Cabíria Festival, in São Paulo.
Lillah Halla served on the International Jury to MyFrench Film Festival by Unifrance in Paris, together with Moroccan actor and director Faouzi Bensaïdi, Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino, Austrian director Marie Kreutzer, and French director Katell Quillévéré.
Lillah Halla is now represented in Brazilian territory by Atena Agency.
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2023
World Premiere Feature Film Levante at Semaine de La Critique Cannes
2022
Residency at Akademie der Künste, Berlin
First Cut Lab, Nouvelle Acquitaine
Full Circle Lab, Nouvelle Acquitaine
2021
2020
NEXT STEP I Semaine de La Critique
2020 TIFF Filmmakers Lab, Toronto International Film Festival
2020 Cast und Cut Stipendium Nordmedia und Kulturstiftung Hannover und Region
2020 Talents Buenos Aires
2019 Berlinale Coproduction Market
2018 Fundación Carolina, Madrid
2018 Sesc Novas Histórias
2018 Cinemundi BH
2018 Bafici Bal Buenos Aires
2017 Tribeca Script-doctoring Award
2016 Brlab - Latin american Script Lab. Awarded
2015 Locarno Film Academy (with Agnes Varda, Pedro Costa, Lav Diaz, among others)
2014 Talents Guadalajara
2013 Ibaff Film Festival Filmmakers Lab, workshop with Abbas Kiarostami.
2012 Process Cinema Lab, Phillip Hoffman, Film Farm Ontario
2009 Actors Directing- Meissner Method, with Larry Silverberg. São Paulo.
2007 Artistic Residency at the Watermill Theater Institute from Theater director Robert Wilson. USA.
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PRESS - LEVANTE - coming soon!
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PRESS - MENARCA
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At its core, Menarca reinterprets and revisits masculine myths and fantasies: “the toothed vagina” as a fear of castration, of course; the Brazilian legend of the pink dolphin, in which the animal takes on human form to seduce; the word “piranha” itself. “In the case of piranhas, we could say that in Brazil they’re the cultural representation of the monstrous feminine.” explains the director, Lillah Halla. “The word piranha is a feminine noun, and not only that, in Brazilian Portuguese, it’s a derogatory way to call a sexually active woman, something like ‘slut’ or ‘whore’. ‘Piranha woman’. We're talking about teeth and sexuality again.”
Through a strange piranha-woman, Menarca conveys Lillah Halla’s taste for chimeras, these hybrid beings, and the way they challenge stereotypes: “hybrid beings are symbolic creatures born of cultural anguish. When they appear, they throw a wrench in the system as they can’t fit into any classification, threatening the status quo and its binarism. They are transgressors who see the possibility of an unthinkable future”.
In the film, transgression is bound to be an ordeal, for the whole village as well as the two protagonists. With its political undertones, Menarca’ is an initiation ritual, but also a cry for freedom from two children in a hostile environment. I believe that when the governing mechanisms are oppressive, transgression is an attempt at survival. And for me, it’s essential that this premise materializes in the film, especially in light of what we are currently living in Brazil. Of course, the resolution Nanã finds to deal with conflict is magical and couldn’t be applied didactically... But as a storyteller, I believe in the strength of symbols, in the power that images and stories exert.”
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(Interview by Léo Seosanto, critic and short film coordinator of Semaine de la Critique Cannes)
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Semaine de la Critique 2020 - interview with Léo Seosanto
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Deutsche Welle - video portrait during Berlinale Talents 2021
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