Yonlu

Based on the true story of a 16-year-old boy who, with the help of the internet, conquered the world with his talent for music and art. Fluent in five languages, Yonlu had a network of virtual friends on every continent. No one suspected, however, that he also participated in a forum for potential suicidals.

A co-production with Container Filmes

Trailer
https://vimeo.com/222190739

Were to Watch
Now – http://twixar.me/YjXT
Vivo Play – http://twixar.me/RjXT
Google Play – http://twixar.me/PjXT
Itunes – http://twixar.me/qjXT
Oi Play – http://twixar.me/sjXT

 

Credits:
Written and Directed by: Hique Montanari
Producer: Luciana Tomasi
Editing: Alfredo Barros
Cinematography: Juarez Pavelak
Art Direction: Iara Noemi e Gilka Vargas
Production Manager: Taty Behar
Sound Design: Gabriela Bervian
Soundtrack: Nando Barth
Trilha Sonora: Nando Barth
Cast:
Thalles Cabral (Yonlu) Lorena Lorenzo (Luana) Leonardo Machado (Pai) Nelson Diniz (Psicólogo) Liane Venturella (Mãe) Mirna Spritzer (Repórter)
Awards
Award
41st São Paulo Int'l Film Festival Abraccine Award (Brazilian Association of Film Critics) for Best Brazilian Film
Award
9th International Festival of Frontier Cinema Best Film and Press Award
Award
3rd New Renaissance Film Festival Best Actor for Thalles Cabral; Humanity Award
Award
8th Agenda Brasil Milano: International Festival of Brazilian Film Best Actor for Thalles Cabral
Award
4th Los Angeles Film Awards - LAFA - August 2019 Best First Feature Film Director Award for Hique Montanari
Award
1st ORION International Film Festival Best Feature Film
Award
2nd Puerto Montt Int'l Film Festival Best Feature Film Screenplay
Award
6th Golden Gate International Film Festival - GGIFF Jury Award for Feature Film
Award
3rd Best Film Awards Best Indie Film From South America

Festivals

  • 19th Festival do Rio – Rio de Janeiro Int’l Film Festival (Brazil, 2017)
  • 41st São Paulo Int’l Film Festival (Brazil, 2017)
  • 9th International Festival of Frontier Cinema (Brazil, 2017)
  • Madrid Int’l Film Festival 2018 (Spain, 2018) – Nominee as Best Lead Actor in a Foreign Language Film and Best Director of Foreign Language Feature Film
  • 46th Gramado Film Festival (Brazil, 2018)
  • 3rd Santos FilmFest – Festival de Filmes de Santos (Brazil, 2018)
  • 25th FIC Valdivia – Festival Internacional de Cine de Valdivia (Chile, 2018)
  • 12th Santa Maria Video and Film Festival (Brazil, 2018)
  • III OfCine Film Festival and I Cinemario de Rio Grande (Brazil, 2018)
  • 1st Latin Films Festival (Colombia, 2019)
  • 45th SESC Best Films Festival (Brazil, 2019)
  • Manifesto Film Festival (Netherlands, 2019)
  • 1st Arctic Film Festival (Norway, 2019)
  • 14th Byron Bay Int’l Film Festival (Australia, 2019)
  • 42th Portland Int’l Film Festival (EUA, 2019)
  • Portuguese Language Film Festival (Hungary, 2019)
  • 24th Guarani Brazilian Cinema Award (Brazil, 2019) – – Nominations for Male Revelation for Thalles Cabral and Best Soundtrack 
  • 3rd New Renaissance Film Festival – NRFF (Netherlands, 2019)
  • 8th Agenda Brasil – Festival Internazionale di Cinema Brasiliano (Italy, 2019)
  • 4th Los Angeles Film Awards – LAFA – August 2019 (USA, 2019)
  • 1st ORION Int’l Film Festival (Australia, 2019)
  • 8th Winter Film Awards Winter Film Awards Int’l Film Festival (USA, 2020)
  • UCLA Brazilian Film Series (USA, 2020)
  • 29th St. Louis Int’l Film Festival – SLIFF (USA, 2020)
  • 10th UK Film Festival (England, 2020)
  • 13th Blow-Up Arthouse Filmfest (USA, 2020)
  • 2nd Puerto Montt Int’l Film Festival (Chile, 2020)
  • 2nd Montreal Independent Film Festival (Canada, 2021)
  • 6th Golden Gate International Film Festival – GGIFF (USA, 2021)
  • 16th Santa Monica International Film Festival (USA, 2022)
  • 22nd Malibu International Film Festival (USA, 2022)
  • 10th Maryland International Film Festival (USA, 2022)
  • 70th Columbus International Film & Animation Festival (USA, 2022)
  • 1st Kingston International Film Festival – KIFF (England, 2022)
  • 3rd Best Film Awards – Best Indie Film From South America (UK, 2022)

 

“The proposal of Yonlu isn’t to create a conventional biopic but rather a ‘reinvention’ based on terrible facts, mixing scenes with actors and animation – made by Osso Filmes from illustrations by the real Yonlu –, gathering elements of different languages, as video clip, experimental cinema and documentary film. (…) Hique Montanari’s daring and correct choice, which, with this, managed to involve the audience from indignation to lament, understanding the drama of that young boy and showing, almost as an appeal, that depression is not something to be dismissed, that it is a serious illness and that it needs specialized treatment and double attention of family and friends.”
(Kal J. Moon, POLTRONA POP, 10/11/2017)

“The direction of Hique Montanari was happy in many ways, especially in the way it appropriates of the particular universe of the protagonist, respectfully taking advantage of all his inventiveness. (…) Yonlu is a film with a creative aesthetic, daring and poetic. He treats a sensitive subject in a respectful way, and must (in this humble opinion) be viewed by the whole family. Not only for entertainment, but also for the channel of dialogue it can develop.”
(Lorena Freitas, WOO! MAGAZINE, 10/16/2017)

“So poignant is the narrative, based on a real event, as the director’s conduct is correct in relation to what it means. (…) Yonlu is an allegory of our failure, of our existential impossibility as a country, even before its democratic beginning. A deeply pessimistic film, an allegory of melancholy. We are sad, but a bit of expressive beauty is yet to be shown before it is over.”
(Rosane Pavam, ABRACCINE WEBSITE, 11/17/2017)

“It’s a smart decision to focus on Yonlu’s bedroom. When the film leaves it, is to delineate a delirious aesthetic, without compromise with a realistic narrative. Frames and lighting are contaminated by the depressive lyrics of the songs that the boy has recorded. Another attempt to prevent cheap sentimentality is to narrow the character’s pragmatism in suicide planning. Thus, your few moments of delusion turn into sequences of tension that work well.”
(FOLHA DE SÃO PAULO, 08/30/2018)

Yonlu is a film to be seen with eyes wide open. It doesn’t deliver a common drama of a character going through depression and going deeper and deeper into his artistic aspirations, but a playful and disturbed vision of a teenager who did not find a hug when more needed, but a push into an unbroken chasm – as the psychologist says in the film.”
(Ricardo Rocha, CCINE 10, 08/30/2018)

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