Ella Rumpf to Star in Andrea Štaka's Locarno Winner 'Ibicaba'

Ella Rumpf, Júlio Andrade and Ana Flávia Cavalcanti will star in "Ibicaba: O Paraíso Prometido," the new film from Golden Leopard-winning director Andrea Štaka, produced by Brazil's MyMama Entertainment.

The co-production pairs MyMama with Switzerland's Cinédokké Sagl and Brazil's MMM Carioca. The news was confirmed as an exclusive announcement timed to the Rio Film Festival.

What is the film about?

Set in 1855, the historical drama adapts Eveline Hasler's novel "Ibicaba: O Paraíso nas Cabeças" ("Ibicaba: Paradise in the Heads"). It is based on real events at the Ibicaba farm in rural São Paulo.

The story follows a Swiss working-class single mother who travels to Brazil drawn by the promise of a better life. Instead, she confronts a system of debt, surveillance and exploitation within a society structured by slavery. Her path crosses with Inocência, an enslaved Black woman with healing knowledge who knows the land and devises her own strategies of resistance.

Shooting begins next year in Switzerland and in Cordeirópolis, a municipality in the central region of the state of São Paulo.

Who is behind the project?

Štaka won the Golden Leopard at Locarno and the best film award at the Sarajevo Film Festival in 2006 for "Das Fräulein." Her subsequent films have played at Locarno and Berlin. "Ibicaba" secured the co-production development award at the Berlinale Co-Production Market last year.

The director's connection to the story dates back to her adolescence, when she discovered Hasler's novel. She has been learning Portuguese to prepare, seeking direct communication with cast and crew and greater proximity to the characters' dialogues and experiences.

Historical research for the film is conducted in collaboration with Caróu Oliveira, a Black historian who studies slavery and the daily lives of Black women in the 19th century.

What does MyMama's strategy signal?

Speaking with Variety at the Rio Film Festival, MyMama co-founder and CEO Mayra Faour Auad describes her label as "an international production company."

"I don't work only with Brazilian auteurs," she said. "I want auteurs whose stories we are passionate about. We also don't rely solely on Brazilian funds for financing. We know how to fundraise in Europe, the U.S., and countries like Lebanon."

Faour Auad worked in the U.S. for six years on major films including Noah Baumbach's "White Noise." She cites that experience as the source of her fundraising approach: "my DNA comes from learning how to fundraise in a market like the American market and ensure directors whose voices we believe in get to make their films."

She points to a growing movement of international productions shooting in Brazil, citing Michael Almereyda's "Zero K," which filmed in São Paulo. "I think it is very important because we have a wealth of locations, of cast and capable crews," she said.

"We also have several new regional incentives and the caliber of our heads of department is one of the greatest in the world," she added, noting that international projects now come not only to double Brazil for other locations, but to tell stories set against Brazil itself — as with "Ibicaba."

What else is on MyMama's slate?

MyMama was present at this year's Rio Film Festival with the short "A Casa de Dona Carlota," directed by Lili Fialho and actress Bruna Linzmeyer ("Medusa") in her directorial debut. Based on Aira Bonfim's research, it tells the story of Dona Carlota Rezende, coach of the pioneering female football team Primavera Atlético Clube in the 1940s.

Last year the company brought André Hayato Saito's "Amarela" to the festival; the short played at Cannes and made the Oscars shortlist for Best Live Action Short Film.

MyMama is currently in post-production on two features: João Paulo Miranda Maria's "I Don't Even Know Who I Was," starring Selton Mello, and Pia Marais's "Whyte Lies," which marks the director's return to shooting in Brazil after "Transamazonia."

With "Ibicaba," the company pairs a Locarno-winning European auteur with a Brazilian story of slavery and migration — a template Faour Auad intends to repeat.