Brazil’s Raucous Road Movie ‘Son Of A Bitch’ Unveils International Trailer (EXCLUSIVE)

An animated odyssey 10 years in the making, O Filho da Puta (Son of a Bitch) is, like Ulysses, almost ready to come home.

Before the film’s Brazilian premiere at the Rio International Film Festival, however, it and its four co-directors – Érica Maradona, Otto Guerra, Tania Anaya, and Sávio Leite – will stop in Ottawa for its North American premiere.

When the film screened at Annecy earlier this summer, Cartoon Brew spoke with Guerra about this funny, harsh, and occasionally tender animated gem, which he dubbed “a road movie on foot.”

As we premiere the international trailer, we reached out to Anaya (Nimuendaju) to hear her first thoughts on the recognition the film has received so far.

“It is a great joy to see the film being warmly received wherever it is screened and to receive invitations from so many festivals,” she says. “This recognition is an encouragement for the work developed over so many years and involving so many professionals.”

But 10 years is a long journey, even for an animated film. “As it happens in any long production, many things changed along the way,” Anaya recalls. “The design, storyboard, script… everything was revisited and refined as the film was being made.”

With Maradona’s highly expressive and distinctive art direction, Marco Arruda’s editing, and the contributions of all the artists involved in its long production, Son of a Bitch eventually moved forward.

“However, finding the funding to make the film was a battle in itself. The production lasted ten years, marked by many uncertainties and political crises,” she adds, echoing what Guerra previously told Brew. “The film was changing, growing and finding its own path at the same time that we were fighting to keep it alive.”

And this film is nothing if not lively. Its bright colors and witty humor complement a carefully curated, understated soundtrack that gradually took shape and found its place as production went on, Anaya explains. “The songs came in earlier and already helped establish the mood of the scenes. The musical score, composed by João Omar, came in somewhat later and helped bring unity to the film. And toward the end, the sound design, created by Sérgio Scliar and Fabiano Fonseca, tied everything together.”

But nothing was as linear as it might seem. According to Anaya, there was plenty of back-and-forth before each stage – and each song – finally came together. “Eventually, the soundtrack did expand the film’s aesthetic and emotional dimension.”

After Ottawa, Son of a Bitch heads to Brazil to meet its first local audience. “We are very excited about the film’s Brazilian premiere,” Anaya adds, “because we share the same visual and musical references, the same sociocultural backgrounds and the same kind of humor.”

Reflecting on the film, she concludes: “Choosing animation as a form of filmmaking comes from the possibility of creating worlds, characters and stories that allow us to look at reality from a different perspective. In animation specifically, the creative process is absolute, because we create the images from nothing, beginning with a single drawing, and then weave the film together frame by frame. It is an extremely labor-intensive process, but it is also incredibly stimulating and engaging.”

Son of a Bitch screens in Ottawa on September 23.