Medusa

Mariana is a young evangelical Christian who sings in the church choir and works in a beauty clinic. In their dystopic cult sessions, Mariana and her girlfriends are taught to value physical appearance, good manners and chastity among women. At night, they walk in big groups searching for women labeled as "impure, filled with sin", who deserve to be violently beaten up in the name of God. They replicate the toxic masculinity ingrained in their community by policing and controlling each others bodies.

But after suffering an accident that leaves a scar on her face, Mariana loses her job and becomes a nurse at a hospital with patients in coma - a place where her hidden desires will emerge. Evoking Caravaggio's paintings and the myth of Medusa, the film merges the horror genre with a humorous and stylish colorful musical, criticizing forms of religious extremism in today's Brazilian society. (Festival information, Tromsø 2022)