Manuela Libman

In present-day São Paulo, a trio of young hearts are about to break. Ricardo has both a steady boyfriend and a wandering eye for a new coworker. Isabella is taking a break from both her boyfriend and best friend Ricardo. And hopeless romantic Felipe has suddenly found himself caught between the two of them. These three have big dreams, yearning passion, and opinionated acquaintances, but they’re all unprepared for what’s to come from Cupid’s arrows.

In 1917, Rebeca flees from hunger and war in Poland and arrives in Brazil to reunite with her husband and start a new life. In Rio de Janeiro, she discovers that her husband has died and ends up being held hostage by a large prostitution and women trafficking ring, led by the ruthless Tzvi. Rebeca transgresses her own beliefs and finds allies who are experiencing the same drama. Together, they decide to fight for freedom.

Tamagotchi_Balé is about affective dystopias, the end of erotic experience, narcissism and algorithms. Following a logic of hyperlinks, which mixes dream narratives, extensive research on neoliberal subjectivity, companion devices, 1990s films and video games, two women try to establish a relationship on green screens of Zoom. The Tamagotchi was born from an alien plant and is the first experience of a relationship with a machine that my generation has experienced.