Fresh out of prison, Léa returns to the Sol Nascente favela and joins a formidable gang of women led by her half-sister Chitara. During Léa’s absence, the women have built up a lucrative business as gasolinheiras, illegally extracting oil from an underground pipeline and refining it themselves as petrol. They negotiate a fair price with motorcycle squads that help them secretly distribute the petrol and keep rival cartels at bay. The all-female gang creates a fortress of its own and, as women, blacks, lesbians and poorer members of society, they rebel against disenfranchisement. It is a struggle against Brazil’s authoritarian government which is drifting ever more radically towards the right. Bolsonaro’s jubilant supporters stand in stark contrast to Andreia, another gang member and founder and leader of the Prison People Party, who leads an electrifying election campaign with a megaphone from a moving lorry. Documentary and fiction are closely interwoven in this dystopian film epic. The actors play themselves in their real environment, bringing the realities of their lives into the deeper layers of the narrative. It is an ethnographic science fiction film about a feminist utopia in the midst of a disintegrating society.

In cooperation with Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln (KHM)