Prime Video and RTP Acquire Rights to Leonel Vieira’s ‘Gisberta’

By Marcus Bennett

Prime Video and RTP have acquired Portuguese rights to the four-part true-crime docuseries “Gisberta – Life and Death of a Trans Woman,” with each episode lasting 45 minutes.

Prime Video holds subscription streaming rights in Portugal. RTP holds the free-to-air and ad-supported on-demand rights. The partnership gives the production two domestic routes to viewers.

Volf Entertainment, based in Lisbon, is producing the project with Brazil’s Ultravioleta, and all four 45-minute episodes are now in post-production at the Lisbon company. Leonel Vieira is the director-producer behind the box-office hit “O Pátio das Cantigas” and the HBO Max thriller “O Grito.” He serves as showrunner and co-director.

Brazilian filmmaker Rodrigo Rebouças (“Meninos ao Mar”) created the project. The series is Volf’s first move into true crime.

What does “Gisberta” revisit?

The series returns to the 2006 killing of Gisberta Salce Júnior, a Brazilian transgender woman in Porto. Fourteen minors from the Catholic-run Oficina de São José tortured and killed her. The teenagers were later acquitted of homicide, although some received lesser penalties or educational measures. The case sparked outrage in Portugal and Brazil.

The series draws on archive footage, court records, Gisberta’s letters, interviews and dramatized reconstructions to trace her life from Brazil to Europe, her killing and the judicial aftermath. It also examines allegations of sexual abuse and mistreatment of children at the institution, which closed in 2010.

Relatives, friends, lawyers, journalists and people connected to the case appear as interviewees. The legal outcome remains central: the homicide acquittal did not end scrutiny of the institution or the circumstances of Gisberta’s death.

What does the acquisition change for Portuguese viewers?

The combined deal gives the project paid and free distribution in Portugal, while most of its financing has already been secured between Amazon and the Portuguese cash rebate. Subscription access comes through Prime Video, while RTP supplies free-to-air and ad-supported on-demand viewing.

Vieira told Variety:

“The Conecta awards gave the project a good boost: they were the springboard for us to pitch it to Amazon Prime. With most of the financing secured between Amazon and the Portuguese cash rebate, we then approached the public broadcaster RTP, which also decided to come on board.”

The project’s path to those partners began at Conecta Fiction & Entertainment in Toledo in 2024. It won two awards: Acorde support for music licensing and an invitation to Chile’s Sanfic Industria Series Lab and pitching sessions.

International distribution and Volf’s slate

Vieira is now looking to French distributor About Premium Content (APC), which helped finance the project during development, to lead international sales for “Gisberta” outside Portugal.

“APC is an excellent international distributor for this project, and we’re confident they will do a great job with it,” Vieira said.

Volf dates to 2022 and has backing from an investment fund managed by Quadrantis Capital. The company has built its slate around Vieira’s extensive film and television career.

“Yes, it is Volf’s first true-crime series and, I believe, the first to be produced for a streaming platform in Portugal,” Vieira said. “We hope it does well, because we have another powerful story that we could also tell.”

Volf’s credits also include the Spain-Portugal thriller “Favàritx,” released on Max and RTP. Vieira is also in post-production on “A Noite” (“The Night”), his adaptation of José Saramago. The project is co-produced with Spain’s Spal Films and stars Nuno Lopes, Adriano Luz and Enrique Arce.

The next test for “Gisberta” is distribution beyond Portugal. Prime Video and RTP now provide two domestic routes to viewers; APC’s sales campaign and the project’s Sanfic connections will show whether the series can extend that reach.