Mercy Street

19th century. A Black man fleeing slavery finds a precarious promise of freedom in the Navy. Aboard a corvette, Amaro - known as "Bom-Crioulo" - falls in love with Aleixo, a young white cabin boy. Together, they begin a secret romance under the violent discipline of the lash. Upon arriving in Rio de Janeiro, they find refuge in the boarding house of the Portuguese woman Dona Carolina, on Mercy Street. There, they finally secure a small room to live out their fantasies. However, Amaro is transferred to another ship and prevented from going ashore. In his absence, Aleixo frequents cruising areas and becomes involved with Carolina. When Amaro finds out, he is consumed by jealousy and confronts the young man, which leads to a scandalous outcome. In parallel, the story is being written into a book by
Caminha, a Naval officer who lives among the sailors aboard the corvette.

Director’s Statement

In 2018, I first came across the book "Bom-Crioulo", one of the earliest records of dissident sexualities in Latin American literature. Since then, I have been working on this adaptation, which will be my first narrative feature as a director.

I aim to create a film that speaks to a global audience through a story of desire and freedom, reclaiming Adolfo Caminha's pioneering work without removing the thorns it has carried for over a century while proposing changes informed by contemporary understandings of race, sexuality, and gender, taking care not to reproduce stereotypes. Passages from the novel will be read by an actress with an ironic tone, materializing the narration in a voice-over, though we will never see her body. There is also a metalinguistic layer: the writing of the novel is incorporated into the diegesis through a character-author, Caminha, who witness some events in the story and records them in a book.

The cast will be composed of queer artists, featuring bodies that diverge from historical norms. The setting of imperial Rio is built from preserved locations, combined with archival materials and immersive sound design. The moments of intimacy will be shot with subtlety, maintaining a 16+ age rating. The art direction embraces a baroque and anachronistic aesthetic, while the soundtrack blends Afro-diasporic temporalities. The cinematography evokes an undefined past.

The film confronts the past without softening it, making friction its driving force: between what is seen and what is imagined, desire emerges as an inescapable political power.