Sissel Morell Dargis: Balomania

This text is written by Svetlana and Zoran Popovic, the Magnificent7 festival directors. The film will be screened tonight at MTS in Belgrade. If you also want to read my review of the film, click here https://filmkommentaren.dk/sissel-morell-dargis-balomania-anmeldelse/.

Brazil, favela labyrinths filled with secrets, huge paintings floating in the night sky! An intimate story and a personal fascination grow into a search and at the same time into a stunning defense and praise of an unrecognized art. This exciting, brilliant film became a global hit in a flash and amazed countless world festivals after its world premiere in Copenhagen.

A Danish girl enters favelas of São Paulo to discover real people behind the well-known legend of secret brotherhoods of persecuted and elusive urban heroes – the baloeiros! The film was shot for more than a decade, and the young Danish director undertook an uncertain and lengthy search to reach her protagonists and to gain their trust in the conditions of constant police threats and persecution. From the poor districts of the big Brazilian cities secretly, in specially organized expeditions, large, mysterious packages are taken to the nearby forests, to the hills and before our eyes they turn into huge floating objects lit by the flickering light of the fire, then in an instant they rise into the sky, leaving us breathless. Huge dream-like balloons sail across the vast expanse of the sky, testifying to everyone that baloeiros exist, that once again they defeated repression and the system! Completely mesmerized, without taking their eyes off the sky, another group of devotees chases balloons for kilometers – they are enthusiastic admirers, balloon hunters, who accept their prey as the greatest treasure far from the place where they took off. Many of them are dreaming of becoming baloeiros themselves. The Danish author, thanks to her dedication and openness to understand this phenomenon, allows us to witness an unusual rebellion. Ballons painted in the manner of a naive artistic expression carry icons of popular culture imbued with ancient tradition. They convey messages of the spirit of freedom and beauty of the oppressed souls, trapped by misery, bringing them joy and filling them with pride!

A magnificent cinematic adventure!

Denmark, Spain 2024. 
93 minutes 

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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