O2 Filmes to Produce a Biopic of Samba Star Elza Soares: ‘If She Were American, She Would be Compared to Ella Fitzgerald’(EXCLUSIVE)

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL  — Helmer Fernando Meirelles’ O2 Filmes will produce a biopic of star Elza Soares, considered one of the greatest samba singers ever and a symbol of the struggle against racism and women discrimination in Brazil.

Patricia Andrade (“Two Sons of Francisco”) and Viviane Pistache are writing the screenplay, which is scheduled to go into production in the second half of 2026, said O2 Filmes partner and producer Andrea Barata Ribeiro, who founded the company with Meirelles and Paulo Morelli.

Thais Araujo (“Aruanas”), a top film and telenovela star in Brazil, will play the leading role of Elza, Barata Ribeiro added.

The life of Soares, who died at the age of 91 in 2022, is both tragic and glorious. She suffered from hunger in her childhood in a Rio slum and was abused by her first husband as a teenager. In 1953, when she was a widow struggling to feed her kids, she took part in a radio singing competition hosted by Ary Barroso, the most renowned of Brazilian composers at the time.

Elza was so poorly dressed that Barroso jokingly asked “Which planet you came from?”, to which she immediately replied: “From Planet Hunger.” But after hearing Elza singing a samba song with her powerful voice, Barroso proclaimed on air “a star is born”.

In 2019, then a big star, Elza launched her 34th album entitled “Planet Hunger” and toured with a copy of the dress she wore in the radio contest. In spite of her astonishing talent, Elza endured up-and-downs in her career. Part of the society and media just could not accept the rise of a Black woman with a poor background to stardom.

A drawback was when she got involved with legendary soccer player Garrincha in the 1960s. Instead of praising the marriage of two of the country’s finest talents, the media blamed her for ruining Garrincha’s previous marriage and for his decline as a player. Elza moved to Italy, but later resumed her career in Brazil, and consolidated herself as one of the country’s top artists.

“Elza Soares was a phoenix. From extreme poverty to stardom, and then oblivion, the death of her sons, broken marriages, this Black woman with unparalleled talent survived and lived in a world that did not open doors to her easily. Her biography carried an enormous amount of drama and resilience,” said Barata Ribeiro. “If she were American, she would be compared to Ella Fitzgerald.”

O2 Filmes execs pack out panels at Rio2C. CEO Paulo Barcellos talks on a round table, IA and Creating Content – From Concept to Production on May 29; Igor Kuptas, director of sales-distribution company O2 Play, will receive Audiovisual and Games Startup Pitches, also on May 29; O2 Filmes head of development Gustavo Gontijo is a speaker on the round table Defying Limits: the Art of Innovation Without Losing an Essence, unspooling May 30.