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At first glance, it might seem as if Aly Muritiba took quite a sharp turn with “Funk,” the high-octane musical that follows the Venice-selected “Private Desert” and Gramado closer “Drenched in Blood.” But a closer look
reveals how all three films, as well as many of the director’s other lauded works, are informed by a curiosity around loneliness and desire. In “Funk,” that curiosity lends itself to the portrayal of a young woman whose life’s dream is to become a Brazilian funk star, but whose journey to the top comes with great personal sacrifice.
Playing in competition at the Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival, “Funk” premiered in Tribeca and kicks off with a burst of energy at a party in a favela in Rio de Janeiro. That is where Sabrina (Duda Santos) feels her best, stepping onto the stage and into her MC persona to sing about explicit sexual desires to the bass-heavy beats of funk, the Brazilian rhythm that won the hearts of major international stars like Madonna and The Weeknd. Sabrina is a rocket, a determined young woman who dreams of making it big and is unapologetic about her desires—both professional and sexual.
Speaking with Variety ahead of Huelva, Muritiba says the idea to “speak about favela from a different perspective” came from producers Heitor Dhalia and Manoel Rangel. Both had shot series in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and had witnessed the “potency of funk.” The duo then invited the director into the project, with the newly-formed trio brainstorming the character of Sabrina.
Muritiba’s research process was “empirical,” with the director attending several different funk parties across Rio while working on the script and the visual concept for the film. Casting came soon after, with “Funk” boasting a large ensemble cast including several real-life funk singers like Lellê and MC Nem.
“Casting was conducted by the very talented Alonso Zerbinato, who cast from the favelas and funk parties across Rio,” says Muritiba. “The majority of the ensemble consists of real-life funk singers, but I needed an experienced actress for the main role because Sabrina is a very complex character.”
The answer for Sabrina came in the shape of Duda Santos, whose burgeoning career has skyrocketed in the last two years thanks to main roles in massively popular telenovelas such as “Garota do Momento” and “A Nobreza do Amor.” “Duda is a great actress, but also a great dancer,” noted the director. “After several roles on TV, she was anxious for her first film role, so she grabbed this opportunity with open arms.”
“Duda is a very serious and hard-working professional,” he adds. “For ‘Funk,’ she had to undergo hours of preparation every day, take singing, dancing, and stage presence lessons on top of extended rehearsals for all scenes. It’s very gratifying to see such a young actress be this talented and committed to her craft.”
Despite having broken out internationally and being appropriated by English-and Spanish-language singers, Brazilian funk has long been stigmatized due to its sexual content and its roots in the lower-class favelas, a contradiction that furthers an idea of Latin American art being valued when regurgitated by Americans and Europeans while homegrown artists are shunned and overlooked. Muritiba was very aware of such stigmas, especially when it comes to the rhythm’s hypersexualization, and decided to face them “without prejudice and conservatism.”
“In the context of the favela, to talk about sex or have sex is to celebrate life and freedom,” he adds. “When you portray and sing about Black bodies living, having fun, having sex and having pleasure in a country with over 300 years of slavery and where high numbers of Black people are murdered every day, is revolutionary.”
Muritiba brings up the fact that Brazil has long had films about favelas celebrated internationally, such as “City of God” and “Elite Squad,” but the subgenre usually portrays Black people through a biased lens involving constant suffering. “What ‘Funk’ proposes is the very opposite: Black people happy, alive, and vibrant. We don’t have a single gunshot in the film. This is revolutionary.”
Music was, of course, key to the success of “Funk.” The film features all original songs, composed by Ambulantes in partnership with DJ Renan Valle. “It was a very rich process creating the songs from the ground up,” says the director. “Choosing the beats and writing the lyrics was great to shape the film’s rhythm.”
The director notes how shooting in the favelas came with its own set of challenges but also great joy. “Going up and down hills, stairs, little streets and seeing the poverty faced by so many Brazilians was very difficult, but it was also beautiful to experience a latent sense of community amongst the locals, something that contaminated the film.”
Muritiba is thrilled to still be showing the film at festivals, but has currently turned his attention to his next film, titled “New Eden.” Starring Welket Bungué, Gabriela Pousa, and Zahy Tentehar, the film follows Damião, a young Black priest who arrives in the titular village in Southern Brazil. For now, all the director can say is that the folk horror will premiere next year at a “major international festival.”
