Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday
Film screening as part of KURINGA - Forum Theater Week 2025
It is the last day of the big carnival parade in Rio de Janeiro. Demétria, a single mother, is waiting for her daughter Cora in a favela. But instead of Cora, various men arrive: a priest, the governor and a policeman. A brutal police raid is underway, allegedly because of drug dealing. The police contemptuously call the inhabitants of the neighbourhood “favelados” and “slumdogs” and the military shoots even at unarmed children. Meanwhile, Demétria and the women around her desperately try to save their daughters and sons. Structural racism and social conflicts that have been smouldering in Brazil for decades are at the heart of this all-singing, all-dancing musical short that is brought to life with the help of rhythmic drumming and other Brazilian sounds.
Directors João Pedro Prado and Bárbara Santos recreated an authentic favela setting for their drama filmed at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf which features top-notch performances from their cast.
Duration
90 Minuten
Credits
The film screening takes place as part of KURINGA - Forum Theater Week 2025.
Director, Screenplay: Bárbara Santos, João Pedro Prado
Screenplay: Bia Krieger
With: Uriara Maciel, Ronni Maciel, Jefferson Preto, João Eduardo Albertini
Bárbara Santos
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1963. The writer, theatre director, actor and feminist anti-racist activist is artistic coordinator of the Kuringa theatre workshop in Berlin and founder of the Ma(g)dalena International Network: Feminist Theatre of the Oppressed which comprises groups in Latin America, Africa and Europe. She most recently appeared as an actor in The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão by Karim Aïnouz which won the Grand Prix of Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2019. Ash Wednesday is her debut film as a director.
Studio 1 has a 1.5 m lowered area, which is accessible only by 7 steps. The studio is therefore not barrier-free on the lower surface. Access to the upper part of the studio is possible without steps.
After the movie, there will be a talk with the director Bárbara Santos and the process of creation related with Aesthetics of the Oppressed.
KURINGA Forum Theatre Week 2025
Uferstudios
Stage:
Studio 1
Badstraße 41
13357 Berlin
Free entrance
Registration for the event via e-mail to qualification@kuringa.org.
Donations are welcome.