Sonia, a young Russian woman, decides to leave friends and family in St. Petersburg and seeks a better future in the west. She is about to experience the illusion of a new life and a hell for those whose life has nothing more to offer. Sonia’s optimism slowly but surely turns into a feeling of despair and hopelessness. Later in the film, she falls into the hands of a rich Italian. The film now changes from an intimidating, realistic story into a grim fairytale – a nightmare that looks beautiful, but in which you cannot live.

An unflinching indictment and urgently timely plea, not only that we put an end to human trafficking, but also that we renounce our inhumane tendency to approach the factors causing people to seek refugee in a hierarchical manner, or that of dividing them into judgemental categories of the “legitimate” and “illegitimate”.

Teresa Villaverde was born in Lisbon/Portugal in 1966. In the 80s she worked as an actress, co-author and co-director in the Theater Group of the School of Fine Arts in Lisbon. She participated as an actress in the film À FLOR DO MAR, by João César Monteiro and worked in the set of Paulo Rocha’s DESEJADO as continuity supervisor. In the early 90s she began working as a director, always writing her own scripts. All her films had world premieres at A festivals such as Cannes, Venice and Berlin. Furthermore, she was appointed to the juries at numerous film festivals.

Filmography (selection): 1991 A IDADE MAIOR, 1994 TRÊS IRMÃOS, 1996 O AMOR NÃO ME ENGANA, 1998 OS MUTANTES, 2003 A FAVOR DA CLARIDADE, 2006 TRANSE, 2017 COLO, 2018 GALILEO’S THERMOMETER, 2019 SIX PORTRAITS OF PAIN