
Ecstasy
SYNOPSIS
Fiction | 75’ | color | 35mm/DCP | Brazil | 2020
Clara confronts fear and vulnerability by crafting a world in which she can control everything — even her own hunger. But a life of restriction and self-inflicted torment can take on a deceivingly seductive form. Until that haunting delirium breaks, she will push her body to the brink.
Available for rental on Vimeo On Demand.
CREDITS
Director Moara Passoni
Producers Moara Passoni, Petra Costa
Cast Clara Rossetti, Alice Valares, Gigi Paladino, Unknown Actor, Susana Priz
Co-producer Sara Dosa
Production Company Busca Vida Filmes
Executive Producers Emilia Ramos, Leda Stopazzoli, Paula Pripas
Screenplay and Research Daniela Capelato, Henrique P. Xavier, Maurício Ayer, Moara Passoni, with contributions from women who have experienced anorexia
Cinematography Janice D’Avila
Editing Fernando Epstein
Sound Design Cécile Chagnaud
Sound Mixing Edson Secco
Original Score Ismael Pinkler
Soundtrack “I’m Waiting Here” by David Lynch and Lykke Li
AWARDS & FESTIVALS
2020
Porto/Post/Doc – SPAutores Cinema Falado Award – Best Film
This Human World – Up&Coming Competition Nominee
International Women's Film Festival Seoul – Discovery Award Nominee
Millennium Docs Against Gravity – TVP Kultura Award & Audience Award Nominee – Best Film
Biografilm Festival – Best Film Unipol Award – International Competition Nominee
CPH:DOX – CPH:DOX Award Nominee
Lucas – International Festival of Films for Children and Young People – Youngsters Award Section 16+
São Paulo International Film Festival – Winner: Abbracine Prize – Best Debut Feature / Nominee: New Directors Competition – Best Documentary
Montréal Festival of New Cinema – Winner: Daniel Langlois Innovation Award / Nominee: Louve d'Or – Best Film
2021
Female Filmmakers Festival Berlin – Best of Festival Feature Nominee / Best Newcomer Performance Nominee (Victoria Maranho)
Valdivia International Film Festival – Winner: Pudu Award – Best Film, Youth Feature Competition
Cinema Jove – Valencia International Film Festival – Winner: Prix Cima / Winner: Youth Jury Award – Best Film / Nominee: Moon of Valencia – Best Film
Tromsø International Film Festival – Aurora Award Nominee

MOARA PASSONI
Moara Passoni is a filmmaker, writer, and producer whose work navigates the space between cinematic essay and political inquiry into human experience. She holds a degree in Social Sciences from the University of São Paulo, a master’s in Documentary Theory from Unicamp, and an MFA in Screenwriting and Directing from Columbia University. She also studied Aesthetics at Paris 8, Communication and Body Arts at PUC-SP, and screenwriting at EICTV, Cuba. She co-wrote and associate produced The Edge of Democracy (2019), an Academy Award nominee and Peabody Award winner, and is a longtime collaborator of director Petra Costa, having also worked on Olmo and the Seagull (2015) and Elena (2012).
In 2020, her hybrid debut Êxtase premiered in the main competition at CPH:DOX and went on to screen at MoMA’s Doc Fortnight, Visions du Réel, and numerous other festivals, earning critical acclaim and international awards. Named one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker Magazine, she received the Jelinek Award for artistic excellence at Columbia.
She is currently developing her first narrative feature Cost of Living — supported by Berlinale Talents, TorinoScriptLab, Projeto Paradiso — a series on the historic Corinthians Democracy movement, and a feature film about DJ Alok, co-written with Indigenous leader Célia Xakriabá. Moara is a founding member of the BR Filmmakers Collective and splits her time between Brazil, New York, and the ever-expanding terrains of political imagination.