Saldanha's '100 Days' Closes Rio Film Festival as Brazilian Gala

Carlos Saldanha's "100 Days" closed this year's Rio Film Festival as the Brazilian closing gala, marking the "Ice Age" and "Rio" director's first live-action feature after almost a decade of development. The film adapts explorer Amyr Klink's 1984 solo row across the South Atlantic from Africa to Brazil, drawn from Klink's book "One Hundred Days Between Sky and Sea."

Saldanha, the Brazilian-born director behind the "Ice Age" films, "Rio" and "Ferdinand," told Variety the project arrived via veteran producer Paula Consenza before the pandemic. "When this project came to me, I thought it was a great coincidence because I love the book," he said. "It was a very formative read in my teenage years. When I got the script, I reread the book and loved it even more. I knew it deserved a big cinema treatment."

What did the production actually require?

The film's ambitions were physical as much as narrative. Saldanha reworked the script with Elena Soarez and Thais Tavares, then spent two years in post-production after principal photography wrapped — split between a São Paulo VFX team and a Finland-based partner handling water and weather work.

"It was a great learning curve for the entire team," Saldanha said of the water tank built for the shoot. "It was the first time we were working with a tank that big, and we were learning as we went. We spent a week in the ocean, but we needed the tank to shoot the night sequences, the storm."

He continued: "We finished shooting two years ago, and we spent that whole time intricately working on the special effects." The São Paulo–Finland split, in his words, was "a very, very cool co-production model."

Who carries the cast?

The film rests on a small ensemble. Filipe Bragança plays Klink; Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, known for "Emily in Paris," plays his mother Asa; Felipe Camargo and João Silva portray his father and brother.

Casting, Saldanha said, was central. "We had a very interesting casting process because it's a fairly small ensemble, so they all had to be in synergy," he said. On Bragança: "Filipe was incredible. He is very studious and dedicated. We met for coffee, and it was love at first sight. He worked so hard for the role; he went on a strict diet, he watched every single Amyr video, he read and reread the book."

Leroy-Beaulieu's casting hinged on language and look. Klink's mother was Swedish and spoke Portuguese with a particular accent. "I was so impressed with how great her Portuguese is," Saldanha recalled. "And she looks a lot like Amyr's mother, so it felt just right. She came to Brazil for two weeks to shoot, and it was wonderful."

What does this change for Saldanha — and for Brazilian screens?

The film marks a deliberate pivot back to Brazil for a director whose U.S. animation career includes the "Ice Age" franchise and "Rio." "With Netflix's 'Invisible City' and '100 Days,' I began breaking the barriers I had within the Brazilian film industry, because I didn't know that many people in the industry here," he said.

The corporate backing is heavier than the director's CV suggests. "100 Days" is produced by Ventre Studio in co-production with Buena Vista International, Boipeba Filmes, Trema Filmes, O2 Post and Total Post. The Walt Disney Company's Buena Vista International handles distribution — a notable combination of Brazilian co-financing and Disney distribution muscle for a Portuguese-language adventure.

What's actually at stake at the Odeon

Saldanha framed the Odeon screening as both personal homecoming and a test of audience turnout. "I am also hoping Brazilian audiences will watch the film in cinemas because it was made for cinemas," he said. "The film has a lot of big adventure elements, so I think people will enjoy seeing that on the big screen."

His pitch carried a national-cinema edge: "I think we need to tell the stories of our heroes. We are used to watching foreign heroes on screen, but we need to see ourselves reflected in our cinema and understand we, too, have heroes."

The line carries a caveat the box office will eventually answer: Disney distribution for a Brazilian-language adventure is unusual, and Saldanha's stated hope that audiences "will watch the film in cinemas" is not the same as proof they will. Whether the Odeon premiere converts to sustained theatrical business — or settles as a one-off homecoming — is the real measure of the next hundred days.