OUR SECRET
nosso segredo
directed by Grace Passô
Brazil / Portugal, 2026, 104′
BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
PERSPECTIVES COMPETITION
world premiere
A Black Brazilian family in the city of Belo Horizonte, tries to rebuild their home after a recent loss. Caught between memories and nightmares, and unable to express what they feel to each other, a mother and her children shield themselves from the pain of grief through their individual routines. Only the youngest child understands the secret that the house holds within its four walls and tries to reveal it to the others, only to fall on deaf ears. Finally, confronted with the truth, they face the deep roots of their grief and come together to traverse this moment with love and courage.
Director: Grace Passô Screenplay: Grace Passô Producer: Ricardo Alves Jr. Co-Producers: Rachel Daisy Ellis, Julia Alves, Catarina de Sousa Executive Producer: Julia Alves Production Manager: Luna Gomides Cast: Robert Frank (Gilson), Efraim Santos (Tutu), Jéssica Gaspar (Grazi), Flip (Guto), Ju Colombo (Suely), Marisa Revert (Anamélia), Gláucia Vandeveld (Lêda), Juan Queiroz (Sidney), Mateus Aleluia (Marcelo), Nanego Lira (Father), Tássia Reis (Mulher no bar) Cinematography: Wilssa Esser, DAFB Production Design: Lucas Osório Editing: Gabriel Martins, Eva Randolph Sound Recording: Gustavo Fioravante Original Score: Amaro Freitas Sound Design and Mixing: Tiago Bello International Sales: The Open Reel International Press: MadAvenue PR
Grace Passô (1980) is a Brazilian director, screenwriter, and actress. She has a long career in theater and has received many awards for her work. As a film actress, she was awarded Best Actress at the Torino International Film Festival (Italy), and was twice awarded at Brasília FF and Rio de Janeiro IFF. She directed the short film REPUBLIC and the medium-length film DAZED FLESH, co-directed with Ricardo Alves Jr., which was part of Berlinale 2019 – Forum Expanded. OUR SECRET is her first feature film.
“Since I created this story, many years ago, it has become an inexhaustible source of reflection about many things. It helps me understand what lies behind all that is left unsaid in personal, intimate, relationships; within families, within different dimensions of grief and absence, in relation to what may be understood but is unnamable, and many other things. It is a story that is, in fact, a source—just as families are. I always imagined the camera getting lost in the rooms of the house, as if that family were searching for an answer to all the love and pain that existed there. The house in OUR SECRET is the great character that not only reveals, but above all guards the mystery, because memories are scattered there and inhabit the bedrooms, basements, messy rooms, backyard, porch, the leaks… This house is a metaphor for what is ready to burst from the characters of the family in this film.”
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