Thanks to the new ICEC minority coproduction fund, we are presently working on the 90-minute documentary production Balloon Wars, with production company House of Real in Denmark.

This coming-of-age film by director Sissel Morell Dargis promises to blow your preconceptions of Brazilian gang life to shreds.

Balloon Wars takes audiences into the heart of Brazil’s favelas, where a hidden society of hot air balloon-makers sacrifice everything to make their illegal creations fly. Told from an intimate insider’s viewpoint, director Sissel took refuge in Sao Paulo’s graffiti community when she was just 19 years old. One day she discovered a whole new territory where the spray paint never reached: the sky.  An unobtainable space now claimed by the baloeiros – the notorious balloon makers.  Balloon Wars is a surreal journey that challenges our assumptions of favelas, gang life and the power of art.

Balloon Wars is a House of Real and Polar Star Films co-production, funded by The Danish Film Institute, ICEC, The West Danish Film Bond, the Nordisk Film and Television Fund, in coproduction with AlJazeera English, and in collaboration wih DR2, SVT and VGTV.