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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 JULY - SEMI FINALIST - Stockholm City Film Festival (Sweden)
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.
2025 17 August h. 5PM - 28° FESTIVAL De CINEMA JUDAICO HEBRAICA en Sao Paulo (Brasil)
📍 20 Agosto h. 9.00 – Scuola Bilingue Italiana Eugenio Montale de Sao Paulo (Brasil)
📍 21 Agosto h. 18.30 – Unibes Cultural (Partnership Istituto Italiano di Cultura di SP) - Sao Paulo
2025 SEPTEMBER (22) h. 16 - ATELIER TONELERO Rua Tonelero 719 - SAO PAULO (Brasil)
2025 OCTOBER 17 Italian Premiere at the Bari Brasil Film Fest – at the Civic Museum h. 18.
The documentary TAIBALE will also serve as the Opening Screening of the 7th edition of the Brasil Film Fest.
The event will feature the participation of the director, Professor Silvia Godelli, and, joining live from São Paulo, the documentary’s protagonist Antonieta Felmanas.
2025 November 9 OFFICIAL SELECTED Festival Iberico Latino Americano di Trieste (Shalom, il sentiero ebraico nell'America Latina)
2025 DECEMBER 5 Special screening for the students of the Municipal School Manoel Bequimao, in the municipality of Bom Jesus das Selvas in Maranhão, Brazil. Great participation, debate, and reflections
1. PRESS RELEASE
“TAIBALE, STORY OF A RESCUED CHILD ” by Gianni Torres.
DocumentAI - 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. One night, the institute was invaded by 5,000 homeless people who, by burning and devastating the forest, rapidly built a favela. While in the city all the other 40 occupations were dismantled by the army, the only one who opposed repression and instead chose to welcome and protect the invaders was Taibale, who still repeats today: “No one deserves to be expelled from the place where they live.”
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).
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)
Interview for WGI (July 1, 2025)
Giornale di Puglia
TRIBUTE FROM THE ANCHIETA GRAJAÚ INSTITUTE TO TAIBALE, on the day of the documentary screening at the Museum of Image and Sound in São Paulo (Brazil)
FOLHA DE SAO PAULO
PREMIERE IN BRAZIL
Museum of Image and Sound, in collaboration with the Holocaust Memorial
São Paulo, June 5, 2025
TH+ PORTAL
Editorial in Folha de S.Paulo (June 17, 2025)
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20 September Special screening of TAIBALE at Atelier Tonelero (São Paulo)
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O ESTADO DE SAO PAULO
September27, 2025
MASSORET, Partecipe da Sessao de Cinema de Sukà - Sao Paulo 11 Outubro 2025 h. 17.30
RAI Radio 1 Stereonotte Brasil
by Max De Tomassi
On Saturday, October 4th at 12:30 a.m. Gianni Torres will talk about the great success of TAIBALE in Brazil and reveal the upcoming news.
Italian Premiere at the Bari Brasil Film Fest – October 17, 2025, h. 6pm at the Civic Museum.
The documentary TAIBALE will also serve as the Opening Screening of the 7th edition of the Brasil Film Fest.
The event will feature the participation of the director, Professor Silvia Godelli, and, joining live from São Paulo, the documentary’s protagonist Antonieta Felmanas.
Photo from Bari Brasil Film Fest: Vince Abbracciante (Taibale's Music), Giampaolo Camaggio e Vantessa Mastrocessario Silva (Bari Brasil FF), Marcelo, Ana, Vera Rubens Paiva (Guests)
October 10, 2025 Video Call for an upcoming Special Screening of Taibale in schools in the Maranhão region of Brazil. Escola Municipal Manoel Bequimao, Municipio of Bom Jesus das Selvas
Debate with the audience following the screening of TAIBALE at UNIBES Cultural in São Paulo (Brazil)
December 5, 2025 - Special screening for the students of the Municipal School Manoel Bequimao, in the municipality of Bom Jesus das Selvas in Maranhão, Brazil. Great participation, debate, and reflections.
Eidi Feldon, Taibale
the school and Gianni Torres
