Ecstasy (2020)

• 76%
• 2020
• Documentary
• Moara Passoni

Moara Passoni, the co-author and producer of Petra Costa's Academy Award - nominated The Edge of Democracy, transmutes a young Brazilian woman's experience of anorexia into images and thoughts of almost ecstatic beauty. Against the backdrop of political and social upheaval in 1990s Brazil, and interweaving memories of her own adolescence with those of other women, Passoni goes beyond pop-culture conventions and the sensationalizing of eating disorders to meditate on the dissolution and perfection of the self, the modernist architecture of Oscar Niemeyer's Brasilia, the meaning of Humpty Dumpty, and what she calls "the geometry of hunger". Extase premiered in the main competition of CPH:DOX 2020 and screened at several film festivals such as MoMA's Doc Fortnight 2020 and Visions du Reel 2020, wining numerous awards including the Prix D'Innovation Daniel Langlois at Montreal Festival of New Cinema 2020, the Jury Award for Best Film by First-Time Director at the São Paulo International Film Festival 2020 and the Youth Award at Cinema Jove - Valencia International Film Festival 2021.