TAIBALE, story of a rescued child

TAIBALE DOCUMENTAI

TAIBALE , story of a rescued child by Gianni Torres

DocumentaAI - World Premiere in Bangkok - november 2024

NEWS, Awards and Screenings:

2024 - November - AWARD WINNER Category Documentary Film - BANGKOK MOVIE AWARDS (Thailand)
2024 - November - AWARD WINNER - Best Foreign Language Film Award -

The Buddha International Film Festival (India)
2024 - November - HONORABLE MENTION Documentary film -

ATHENS INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY ARTS FILM FESTIVAL (Greece)
2024 - December AWARD WINNER - BEST BIOPIC - Arjuntala International Film Festival (Bangladesh)
2025 - January - OFFICIAL SELECTION ( cat. Best Documentary and cat. Best Producer) -

BELGRADE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (Serbia)
2025 - January - OFFICIAL SELECTION (Best Documentary) - Indo Dubai International Film Festival
2025 January - AWARD WINNER - BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY - Future of Film Awards (North Macedonia)
2025 February - OFFICIAL SELECTED Best Documentary - Cinematic European Film Festival (Romania)

2025 March -   SPECIAL AWARD Best Documentary - Eastern Europe Film Festival (Romania) -
2025 March -   AWARD WINNER Best Documentary - The Bridge of Peace Film Festival (Paris, France)
2025 March - FINALIST - Best Documentary - Luleå International Film Festival (Sweden)
2025   March -   AWARD WINNER Best Documentary - Amsterdam New Cinema Film Festival 2025 -
2025 March -   HONORABLE MENTION - Indipendent Film Awards (Leeds UK)

2025 October(3-10) OFFICIAL SELECTED APOX Film Festival (Croatia) - Documentary

2025 5 June at 7 p.m. SPECIAL event for the DOCUMENTARY ‘TAIBALE’ at the hall of the Museum of Sound and Image in Sao Paulo (Brasil). The event is organised by the Holocaust Memorial of Sao Paulo in collaboration with the Museum of Sound and Image.

1. PRESS RELEASE

“TAIBALE, STORY OF A RESCUED CHILD ” by Gianni Torres.

Documentary - Duration: 72' – Italy/Brazil (11/2024)

TAIBALE tells an incredible and previously untold true story: that of a Jewish girl born during Soviet deportations in Eastern Poland, who survived the Nazi occupation, was repeatedly saved by strangers, and eventually found rebirth in Brazil, where she dedicated her life to helping the forgotten.

In 1940, at the height of World War II, Antonieta Felmanas, born Taibale Reichel, came into the world in Kazakhstan, where her mother had been deported by the Soviets while pregnant. Their Jewish family originally lived in Kazyany (then Poland, now Belarus). After the Soviets came the Nazis, invading the region. The baby girl was saved first by a Christian baron (in exchange for two sacks of gold) and later by a pair of destitute Lithuanian farmers.

But the tragedy continued: the family was imprisoned in a ghetto and ultimately exterminated. Only thanks to her cousin Rivka, a young Jewish partisan who escaped the ghetto, did Taibale survive. Rivka kidnapped her to save her life.

This marked the beginning of a long journey from Lithuania to Italy, across borders, danger and acts of solidarity. Once in Italy, an international Jewish relief organization (the Joint) managed to find her a new family in Brazil, related to her own. At the age of six, Taibale landed in São Paulo, finally safe.

Kept in the dark about her past, she discovered her true origins only on the day of her wedding, at age eighteen.

But her story didn’t end there. Raised with a deep sense of justice and compassion, Antonieta became a pivotal figure in Brazilian social activism. She was the first female president of UNIBES, one of Brazil’s largest social organizations, and later founded the Instituto Anchieta Grajaú, a center that welcomed thousands of children, homeless people, and abandoned families in the outskirts of the metropolis.

The rescued girl became the one who rescues.

The documentary retraces this extraordinary life through an intimate and moving narrative style: Antonieta’s voice is direct and personal, guiding us firsthand, enriched by rare family photo archives, an unreleased audio recording of Rivka, and historical documents. The storytelling is enhanced by innovative use of artificial intelligence, which visualizes memories that were never photographed — a tool that doesn’t distort the truth, but rather makes it visible through animation.

This visual approach led some to describe the film as a work of DocumentAI, a new experimental cinematic language.

Yet at the heart of everything remains one fragile yet powerful girl — a witness of the 20th century, who survived it all and turned suffering into love.

A co-production by ALTRE PRODUZIONI (Italy) and CASADEFORÇA PRODUÇÕES (Brazil).

NEWS, AWARDS AND SCREENINGS

2024 – November

🏆 AWARD WINNER – Documentary Film – Bangkok Movie Awards (Thailand)

🏆 AWARD WINNER – Best Foreign Language Film – The Buddha International Film Festival (India)

🎖️ HONORABLE MENTION – Documentary Film – Athens International Monthly Arts Film Festival (Greece)

2024 – December

🏆 AWARD WINNER – Best Biopic – Arjuntala International Film Festival (Bangladesh)

2025 – January

🏆 AWARD WINNER – Best Feature Documentary – Future of Film Awards (North Macedonia – Monthly Edition)

2025 – March

🏅 SPECIAL AWARD – Best Documentary – Eastern Europe Film Festival (Romania)

🏆 AWARD WINNER – Best Documentary – The Bridge of Peace Film Festival (Paris, France)

🎬 FINALIST – Best Documentary – Luleå International Film Festival (Sweden)

🏆 AWARD WINNER – Best Documentary – Amsterdam New Cinema Film Festival (Netherlands)

🎖️ HONORABLE MENTION – Independent Film Awards (Leeds, UK)

2025 – Official Selections (as of May 1st, 2025)

✅ OFFICIAL SELECTION – Best Documentary – Cinematic European Film Festival (Romania)

✅ OFFICIAL SELECTION – Best Documentary & Best Producer – Belgrade International Film Festival (Serbia)

✅ OFFICIAL SELECTION – Best Documentary – Indo Dubai International Film Festival

✅ OFFICIAL SELECTION – APOX Film Festival (Croatia – October 3–10, 2025, Documentary Section)

The documentary is currently awaiting confirmation from additional festivals and international events.

CAST&CREW

Written, directed, editing by Gianni Torres

Music: Vincenzo Abbracciante
Genre: DOCUMENTAI FILM/ Documentary / Biographical/ Social/ Jewish/ Historical documentary/Biopic
Running Time: 74' (TV version 54')
Production : ITALY/BRASIL
Produced by ALTRE PRODUZIONI (ITALY) Gianni Torres, Maria Giannuzzi, Domenico Torres - CASADEFORÇA PRODUÇÕES (Brazil) César Meneghetti

Locations: Picinguaba (Brazil), Sao Paulo (Brazil)
Reference period: Current events - World War II
Original language: Portuguese, Yiddish (Subtitled in IT or ENG)
Operator, DOP, Drone: G. Torres, Tadeu Sampaio
Sounds/Themes/Images: Pix bay
Audio Mix: Tinto
Color Correction: Tinto

Technical support: Michele Roppo
Voice Over: Artificial Intelligence by Eleven Labs

Animations: Artificial Intelligence by Kaiber.ai
Featuring : Antonieta Felmanas, Roberto Loeb,
Michelle Caetano, Isadora Marchi de Almeida, Rosana Vazoler,
Leda Maria da Silva, Robson Santana, Buiú, Fernando Flash,
Caio Santo Amore, Moacir.....

Completed in november 2024

Corriere del Mezzogiorno (Italy)