O Nome da Vida (The Name of Life)

Four years of hard work to reach this moment. Like a medicine to wake up, this work was about seizing a tortured story — of the country and of my own people.

Sixty years after the military coup in Brazil, it is necessary to recover the memory of those who fell defending freedom, democracy and social justice — to tell it, to make it survive.

Animation has its own time and form of telling. To portray Wladimir as a child, we chose to combine different techniques. Adapting the autobiography into an animation script was one of the most meaningful journeys of the production — choosing what to tell and why. So we went beyond the book and listened to Grandma Rachel, to affirm her part in the story.

A lot of research came before the visual development. Like when Sônia handed us a treasure — a photograph of the chess set Pedro Pomar moulded in prison out of an unlikely mix of bread and glue. Somehow, even if only a single piece, that game would be present.