Estamira Para Todos E Para Ninguém

Marco ‘Curumim’ Archer’s life changed abruptly when police at Jakarta airport seize 13.5 kilogrammes of cocaine hidden in his hang-glider. At first he manages to escape, hiding out in Indonesia for sixteen days before being arrested and sentenced to death. Eleven years later, on 17 January 2015, he was executed for drug dealing.

Estamira is a 63-year-old woman who suffers from schizophrenia. She leads a tough life and has supported herself for the past 20 years by picking through garbage at the Jardim Gramacho Disposal Area in Rio de Janeiro. The film follows her starting in 2000, the year she begins treatment in a psychiatric clinic. At first, it is hard to understand her in her stream-of-consciousness sentences, delusions and obsessions. Gradually, however, we get to know her as a woman who can have quiet and lucid moments despite her illness.

Artificial Paradises tells the story of Nando and Erika, two young people in their twenties who meet several times without noticing. It tells the story of the subculture of electronic music and rave parties and drugs like MDMA.