Film details
- Director
- Nícolas Lobato, Thiago Tuchu
- Country
- Brazil
- Duration
- 20 min
- Language
- Portuguese
- Writer
- Nícolas Lobato, Thiago Tuchu
- Producer
- Aruska Patrícia, Raphael Vieira, Larva Filmes, Mirrage Mirror Produções
- Cast
- Giselle Batista, Richard Abelha, Sain Ktt
Director’s statement
Favela Amarela was born from the idea of bringing cosmic horror into a Brazilian social reality rarely represented within the genre. Inspired by writers such as H.P. Lovecraft and Robert W. Chambers, we were interested in imagining how this kind of horror could exist within the context of Rio de Janeiro’s urban peripheries.
By combining cosmic horror with social horror, the film transforms invisible power structures into something almost mythological. The favela, often reduced to stereotypes, appears here as a complex space filled with tensions and stories.
In this sense, Favela Amarela uses genre cinema to reflect on how larger social and political forces continue to shape life in Brazil’s urban peripheries.
Synopsis
Raised in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Damião joins the Morro do Rato Baleado drug gang to increase his income. During a night shift, he spots strange hooded figures sneaking through the forest on the hillside toward a church, raising doubts about the safety of the community.
Nícolas Lobato, Thiago Tuchu
Director
Nícolas Lobato is a Brazilian director who graduated with honors in Visual Arts from UFRGS and later in Audiovisual Production from PUCRS. In 2017 he received a full scholarship to study cinema for a year at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata in Buenos Aires. Since 2020 he has directed several short films that have screened at national and international festivals and streamed on platforms such as MUBI, Darkflix and Box Brazil. He is the founder of the production company Maggot Movies (Larva Filmes), focusing on horror and genre storytelling. He is currently developing new projects as he moves toward his first feature film.
Thiago Magalhães (Tuchu) is a Black Brazilian director and cinematographer from the periphery of Rio de Janeiro and a member of the Brazilian Society of Cinematography (ABC). Raised in favela and urban occupation contexts, he built his path in cinema through grassroots audiovisual work, moving from assistant roles to cinematography and later directing. He made his directorial debut in 2018 with the documentary Arte a Metro, which received recognition at festivals in Northeast Brazil. As a cinematographer, he has worked on several audiovisual and music projects, and won Best Music Video at the Brazilian Music Awards. After years working primarily in documentary, he now makes his fiction debut with the short film Favela Amarela, where his work continues to engage with social themes and perspectives from Brazil’s urban peripheries.