Bel Bechara and Sandro Serpa’s Brazilian drama “Low Light” (“Lusco-Fusco”), a Rafaella Costa production at Manjericão Filmes, emerged as one of the standout titles at Ventana Sur’s Copia Final sidebar, scooping the Cine+ OCS Award, the Estúdio Silver Award and the Send Files Award.

The prizes have given fresh momentum to a project that tackles domestic abuse and structural violence against women through a story of intergenerational solidarity.

Set largely around a public elementary school, the film follows Vera, a young teacher trapped in an abusive relationship; Alda, the school’s cleaner who has grown old without learning to read or write; and Joana, Alda’s eight-year-old granddaughter and Vera’s pupil, who becomes the link between the two women. 

As Vera and Alda find refuge in their friendship – a small, fiercely defended space where they can share pain, desire and fragile plans for the future – Joana absorbs, almost in real time, what it means to be a woman in Brazil in the mid-2020s.

Conceived during the pandemic, when femicides and assaults against women surged, “Low Light” springs from what its filmmakers describe as the need to show that confronting gender violence is not an individual crusade but a collective process. 

Also penned by Bechara and Serpa, the script is built around three generations – child, young adult and older woman – and insists on finding hope in the everyday gestures of protection and alliance among women rather than in a single cathartic act.

Longtime collaborators, the duo has built a distinctive body of work across seven 35mm shorts and three feature-length documentaries: “Música Serve pra Isso” (2013), “Histórias de Marabaixo” (2016) and “Hoje é o Primeiro Dia do Resto da Sua Vida” (2024). They also directed the 2018 fiction feature “Onde Quer Que Você Esteja” and continue to straddle fiction and non-fiction.

On the production side, Rafaella Costa’s Manjericão Filmes anchors the project. Founded in 2007, the São Paulo-based company has carved out a profile as a go-to partner for politically engaged, women-driven work with international reach. 

Manjericão produced Lillah Halla’s “Power Alley” (“Levante”), which premiered at Cannes’ Critics Week in 2023, sold well, and won the Fipresci prize for best first feature across the parallel sections, and Caru Alves de Souza’s “My Name Is Baghdad,” Crystal Bear winner for best film at Berlin’s Generation 14plus in 2020.

Produced in association with Macondo Filmes, “Low Light” won financing support via Brazil’s Paulo Gustavo Law. Before Ventana Sur, it already made noise in work-in-progress showcases such as Brasil Cinemundi and CineLatino’s Cinéma en Construction at the Audiovisual Hub. 

Variety spoke with Bechara, Serpa and Costa about the film’s origins, its visual language and their ambitions for its international career.

What was the initial spark for “Low Light,” and when did you realise the intersecting stories of Vera, Alda and Joana could sustain a feature?

Bel Bechara and Sandro Serpa: During the pandemic in Brazil, we watched the numbers of femicides, rapes and other forms of violence against women rise sharply. We were living under a far-right government that openly encouraged gun ownership and treated women as inferior, even defending lower salaries for women because they could get pregnant. That misogynistic environment, combined with lockdown and people stuck together in very small spaces, created an explosion of domestic violence.

From there, we sketched the first outline of “Lusco-Fusco,” understanding that confronting structural violence against women wouldn’t be an individual journey but a collective one – women helping and learning from other women. That’s why we built the film around three generations: an eight-year-old girl, a 28-year-old woman and a 54-year-old woman. 

Joana learns from her grandmother and her teacher what it means to be a woman in Brazil in 2025 and, at the same time, she is the one who brings hope, the one who leads the other two not to give up in their darkest moment.

We wanted to make a film about a very harsh subject without losing hope, believing in the power of friendship and protection among women.

How did you approach depicting domestic abuse and illiteracy while preserving Vera and Alda’s agency and dignity on screen?

Alda and Vera face different forms of abuse and violence. Alda had to abandon herself and her education to fit the role expected of women: to care – for men, for the family. Today she works as a cleaner at the school and is also responsible for caring for Joana, her granddaughter, while the father, who lives with them, takes no responsibility at all.

Vera is trapped in an abusive relationship that follows the familiar “cycle of violence”: the man assaults her, disappears, returns remorseful and kind for a while, and then everything starts again. When this cycle isn’t broken, it can end in femicide.

From the very first draft, we decided there would be no graphic violence on screen. The camera pulls back; we cut to the outside of the house; we focus only on the women in the most tense moments. Illiteracy is presented as a consequence of structural violence: once Alda gets closer to Vera and is encouraged to study, she can shift the power dynamics at home and move forward at work.

To preserve their dignity and agency, we worked through the script and very closely with our actresses. Sandra Corveloni a Palme d’Or best actress winner for Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas’ “Linha de Passe,” portrays an Alda who never pities herself. Amandyra’s Vera understands, when she sees the violence reach her friend, that it is impossible to accept this and she reacts.

But we did not seek personal catharsis or individual redemption, which would empty the discussion. The problem is structural, collective and persistent. They have their individual struggles, but they can still be lynched simply for being women. We point toward hope through sisterhood, mutual support and, ultimately, political organization.

How do you use light, space and texture to turn the title “Low Light” into a visual and emotional concept in the film?

The exact translation of “Lusco-Fusco” would be “Twilight,” but that title is already taken from a very famous vampire film. We chose “Low Light” thinking about this moment between darkness and light – dawn or dusk.

We worked on the characters’ emotional states in parallel with this idea. Vera hides in the dark when she isn’t well, and Alda quickly recognizes that code and steps in to help. In a key scene, Vera is drawn to the light of a concert by punk singer Karina Buhr and pushed to make a decision about her future. In the film’s low point, Alda and Vera are on the verge of giving up, surrendered to darkness, with no strength to react, and little Joana brings light – literally and metaphorically – into the scene.

There are also contrasts with brighter, more cheerful spaces, like the school during the day, which later appears lifeless and without light in early nighttime scenes. As Vera and Alda grow closer, it gradually regains color and vitality. The male characters always bring oppression and darkness; in the most tense moments of the “cycle of violence,” everything becomes heavier, and later things seem to improve. That dynamic is reflected in the environments and the lighting, following the logic of the cycle.

What kind of visibility and concrete partnerships are you hoping to secure from the film’s presence at Copia Final at this stage?

Rafaella Costa: The Copia Final session at Ventana Sur is a key window to propel the film toward the world. We believe that our participation in the showcase, combined with the recognition and the awards we received, now gives the film the strength it needs to find the right partners to boost its international reach and commercial punch and help us reach our audience.

Our next step is to secure a beautiful premiere at a major festival and then travel with the film across as many territories as possible, in partnership with a sales agent who will join us in this collaboration.

How does Manjericão Filmes’ track record shape your ambitions for “Low Light” in terms of artistic identity and festival and commercial strategy?

Costa: Manjericão Filmes has consolidated its identity by producing works led by women and dedicated to the most urgent issues in their lives in contemporary Brazil: friendship, youth, politics and its violences, abortion, among others.

“Low Light” continues the ethical and aesthetic vocation that guides our work. The film, which has already drawn attention in work-in-progress sessions in international markets, combines strong character work and precise writing, elements that point to both a solid premiere and a consistent trajectory on the international festival circuit.

At the same time, it is a film capable of engaging broader audiences, first in movie theaters and later on platforms. We are committed to building this path with the same care and artistic ambition that define Manjericão and its projects.