“I’m Still Here” star Selton Mello will follow up his big studio turn in Tom Gormican’s “Anaconda” with João Paulo Miranda Maria’s “I Don’t Even Know Who I Was.” The film is produced by the recent Un Certain Regard-winning label Les Valseurs (“The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo”) and is currently being filmed in Paris.
“I’m always searching for projects that remind me why I fell in love with cinema,” said Mello. “Here in Paris, I’ve found the perfect partners to bring to life this feverish poem, a delicate meditation on grief and cinema, shot on 35mm. João Paulo is one of the most fascinating and talented filmmakers I’ve met in recent years, and Les Valseurs is the ideal production company, with a remarkable instinct for crafting films driven by creative force.”
The actor emphasized he is living a “truly unique and special moment” in his life, “discovering new cultures and expanding my creativity into new territories.” “Everything about this project is deeply inspiring, and I can say it has been one of the greatest artistic challenges I’ve ever embraced: expressing myself in four different languages. It demanded immense concentration, yet it stimulated me in such a profound way that I will never forget the experience.”
“We have long admired Selton Mello’s work as both actor and filmmaker and are honored by the trust he has placed in João Paulo Miranda Maria’s new daring cinematographic gesture,” said Les Valseurs’ co-founders Justin Pechberty and Damien Megherbi, adding that this is a “film that goes against the grain of an era saturated with manufactured images.”
“I’m Still Here,” courtesy of Globoplay
Credit: Alile Dara Onawale – Globoplay
With plot details still kept tightly under wraps, “I Don’t Even Know Who I Was” continues Mello’s buzzy project line-up following his high-profile performance in Walter Salles’s Oscar-winning drama. The actor also recently shot his Spanish-language debut, Dominga Sotomayor’s highly anticipated “La Perra,” also produced by Rodrigo Teixeira’s RT Features.
Miranda Maria, who currently lives in France, received the Cannes Label in 2020 for his feature debut “Memory House,” while his short film “The Girl Who Danced With the Devil” won a Special Mention at the same festival in 2016.
French production and distribution company Les Valseurs has a long history of championing Brazilian filmmaking, having previously worked on titles including Nara Normande and Tião’s “Heartless,” Leonardo Martinelli’s “Samba Infinito” and the upcoming “The French Teacher,” directed by Ricardo Alves Jr. and starring Grace Passô, who currently premiered her directorial feature debut “Our Secret” at the Berlin Film Festival.
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