Feature film · Contemporary mythological reception · Medusa · Masks, gender and contemporary horror

Medusa

Released · 2021

Later Reception & Cultural Continuity · Greek Mythology

Anita Rocha da Silveira reworks Medusa through a contemporary Brazilian story of control, violence and female resistance.

Young women seated around a swimming pool in Medusa — Medusa — production still. Bananeira Filmes / Directors’ Fortnight · Image source

The production story

Set in contemporary Brazil, the film follows Mariana and a group of young women enforcing a restrictive ideal of purity. Masked violence and the pressure to appear perfect become the starting points for a genre film using the Medusa story.

The Directors’ Fortnight records its 2021 world premiere; Festival do Rio explicitly connects its synopsis with Medusa and Athena. This is contemporary mythological reception, not a film set in ancient Greece. The director identifies it separately from other films sharing the title.

Known filming locations

Contemporary Brazil is the story setting. The reviewed festival pages do not establish a complete list of filming locations.

Developments

12 July 2021
World-premiere screenings listed in the Directors’ Fortnight programme. Source ↗

Related Archaeopolis expertise

Characters, masks and performance for contemporary screen stories inspired by Greek mythology.

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For contemporary character work using masks and embodied performance:

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Independent production monitoring — inclusion does not imply a collaboration with Archaeopolis.