"Welcome, Violeta!" tells the story of Ana (played by Brazilian actress Débora Falabella), an anxious young woman desperate to finish writing her short novel Violeta in the well-known literary laboratory "End of the World".

“Over the course of her stay at the remote artist residency, Ana becomes increasingly familiar with Holden's idiosyncratic methods, which require participating artists to abandon their own identities and live emotionally and psychologically as their characters.Captivated by her artistic investigation, Ana dives deep into the method and starts living as Violeta, until her fiction gets out of control,” indicates the synopsis of this Argentine-Brazilian production directed by the director and writer Fernando Fraiha.

The film "Welcome, Violeta!", based on the novel "Cordillera" by Brazilian writer Daniel Galera, will star renowned Argentine actor Darío Grandinetti as Holden. This is a charismatic leader of a writing residence, which is located deep in the imposing Andes mountain range, in Argentine territory.

Besides Darío Grandinetti, Germano Melo, Maria Ucedo, Pablo Sigal, Jenny Moule, and Fredy Johnson are also joining the cast. 

The fictional feature film makes references to the experiences of director Fraiha, who as a young man has been trapped by a cult art community. The film also deftly explores the nuanced intersections of creativity, vulnerability, personal identity, and the potential for emotional coercion when one gives oneself completely to one's craft.

“In my twenties, when I was starting to learn filmmaking, I joined a group of artists that gathered twice a month to take Ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic tea – aiming to mix creativity and spirituality. There was a leader in the group that I naively followed, believing the more I obeyed her, the closer I would get to some inner truth. After three years of weekly rituals, I realized I was putting myself through abusive experiences. The group, which I initially thought had the answers or the keys to some deeper awakening, became a trap that was making me abandon my own life to live in a fantasy world.The story I lived and the main character of the film have a common trace: among so many narratives, we are all just desperately trying to make sense of the world”, commented Fraiha.

The psychological thriller tries to become a portrait of the creative process and the extremes a person is willing to go to in the name of art.

Rodrigo Teixeira has served as producer in this feature film and the script has been written by Fraiha and Inés Bortagaray.

"Welcome, Violeta!" will have its world premiere in the fiction feature film competition at the 2022 edition of the Brooklyn Film Festival (BFF). This event will hold an online and an in person programm from June 3 to 12.