Brazilian short film “Amarela” competes for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival

The short film “Amarela”, written and directed by Japanese-Brazilian André Hayato Saito and produced by Mayra Faour Auad and Gabrielle Auad, from MyMama Entertainment, is competing for the Palme d’Or at the 77th Cannes Festival. The film was selected from more than 4,420 registered works and competes for the festival’s top prize with ten other productions.

The film takes place in São Paulo, in July 1998. On the day of the World Cup final against France, 14-year-old Erika Oguihara (Melissa Uehara), a Japanese-Brazilian teenager who rejects the traditions of her Japanese family, is looking forward to celebrating a world title for her country. Amidst the tension that develops during the match, Erika suffers from violence that seems invisible and enters a painful sea of ​​feelings.

“Amarela” is the third part of MyMama’s short trilogy with Saito that investigates his Japanese ancestry from an authorial and intimate perspective. This search for identity began with the short film “Kokoro to Kokoro”, which addressed the bonds of friendship between her paternal grandmother and her best Japanese friend. The trilogy continued with “Golden Wind”, a work that has as its main character his maternal grandmother, Haruko Hirata, who at 94 years old finds herself on the threshold of existence. The filmmaker explores the relationship between generations in an essay about the death and intimate coexistence of the matriarch with her daughter Sumiko, her caregiver for 18 years.

The short, produced by a mostly Brazilian team of Asian descent, will be the starting point for the director’s first feature film, “Crisântemo Amarelo”, a project that summarizes the trilogy and is in the process of being filmed. All films are produced by MyMama Entertainment.