A Wolf Among Swans

(Um lobo entre os cisnes)

Marcos Schechtman, Helena Varvaki / Brazil / 2025 / 112 min
A Wolf Among Swans A Wolf Among the Swans A Wolf Among Swans A Wolf Among Swans A Wolf Among the Swans
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  • Inffinito Film Festival

    Best Feature, Audience Award

  • Cine Ceará Festival Ibero-Americano de Cinema

    Best Leading Performance, Best Supporting Performance, Best Art Direction

  • Carazinho Int'l Film Festival

    Best Feature, Best Director

  • Festival du cinéma brésilien de Paris

  • Festin Liboa Int'l Film Festival

Spanish Film Club
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Synopsis

Portuguese with English Subtitles

With Matheus Abreu, Dario Grandinetti, Margarida Vila-Nova, Alan Rocha, Giullia Serradas

Why will your students love A Wolf Among Swans? Because it tells the true story of Thiago Soares, one of Brazil’s greatest ballet dancers, offering a compelling study of artistic excellence emerging from marginalized communities. Because the mentor-student relationship invites critical discussion about power dynamics, cultural transmission, and the transformative process of artistic formation. And because its cross-cultural narrative—from Rio’s favelas to the Royal Ballet in London—provides rich material for examining class mobility, cultural capital, and the globalization of the performing arts.

A Wolf Among Swans is a biographical drama that follows the extraordinary journey of Thiago Soares, a boy from the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro who trades the rhythms of hip hop for the discipline of classical ballet.

Under the stern but transformative guidance of Cuban mentor Dino Carrera, Thiago confronts personal and artistic challenges that propel him from the streets of Brazil to international acclaim as the principal dancer of the Royal Ballet in London. Drawing from the rich, real‑life career of Soares—one of Brazil’s most celebrated dancers—the film explores themes of resilience, identity, and the power of art to transcend cultural and socioeconomic barriers.

Directed by Marcos Schechtman and Helena Varvaki, with creative input from internationally acclaimed screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (known for 21 Grams and Babel), the film combines a predominantly Brazilian cast with major names from Argentina (Dario Grandinetti) and Portugal, blending an intimate character study with breathtaking choreography and cinematic style.

Related Subjects
About the Director
Marcos Schechtman is an Emmy Award–winning filmmaker whose work spans fiction, television, and international production. Schechtman has worked extensively across India, the United States, Morocco, Turkey, and Peru, and has held key executive roles in Brazilian television, including Head of Television Drama at TV Manchete and Unit Director at TV Globo. His latest fiction feature, A Wolf Among Swans (Um Lobo Entre os Cisnes, 2025), co-directed with Helena Varvaki, explores the life of acclaimed ballet dancer Thiago Soares.

Helena Varvaki is an award-winning actress and director born in Rio de Janeiro, with an extensive career spanning theater, television, and cinema. As an actress, she has appeared in acclaimed series such as Sob Pressão, directed by Andrucha Waddington and Mini Kerti, and Todo Dia a Mesma Noite, by Júlia Rezende and Carol Minêm, as well as in feature films including A Última Chance, directed by Paulo Thiago; the short film O Presente, by Úrsula Marino; and Baile de Máscaras, directed by Flávio Tambelini and Eduardo Hunter. Expanding her work behind the camera, Varvaki co-directed the feature film A Wolf Among Swans (Um Lobo Entre os Cisnes, 2025) with Marcos Schechtman.

Press

“An important look at economic struggle, identity and the sacrificial methods of accomplishments. While precisely depicting the authenticity of this young dancer, who came from street dance influences to become one of the world’s leading ballet dancers, the film is encapsulated by a sense of encouragement which easily translates to how efficiently it plays as a statement on the transformational impact of art.” – Roger Costa, Brazilian Press

“A gripping film with precise cinematography, rhythmic editing, and a fine soundtrack. With a well-written script and excellent acting from the entire cast, the result is a thought-provoking cinematic work about a courageous friendship between two men from completely different worlds, and about the ability to change and become the best version of yourself as a person.” – Mitzpe Ramon Film Festival

Notes on the Film

“The narrative is centered around the human condition, in the real transformation story of Thiago Soares facilitated by his mentor, materialized through impressive achievements and conquests. The stylistic narrative technique used, the logic of implication of drama, uses as its guiding thread Thiago’s relationship with Dino Carrera, the man who envisioned the great artist of today, encapsulated in a wild teenager. What interests us is the subjective reality that relates to Thiago’s life story, the psychological motivation that substantiates the action. Dino had 30 days to transform the untamed 17-year-old rookie into a dancer who could represent Brazil at the Paris Dance Competition in 1998.

It is in the conflict of the two antagonistic personalities, in the continuum of intensities of the power play, that the mentor undertakes the physical and behavioral shaping of the young man, who, in turn, gradually gains confidence not only in the intentions but also in the vision that the other holds for his own future.

Some references for A Wolf Among Swans are: Black Swan (2011), La Vie en Rose (2007), Ray (2004), Frida (2002), Billy Elliot (2000), and Good Will Hunting (1997). As for the dramatic genres and subgenres, there is a combination of them: the transformation drama based on biography in which the interpretation of facts will be fictionalized; the social drama of the boy subject to the financial and educational problems of society who builds his career by overcoming numerous foundational difficulties and physical challenges; and the education plot where the significant relationship with the mentor that provides true evolution is inserted, the arc focused on the protagonist’s changing view of himself.

Thiago emerges from the negative, from the “invisible” and foreign boy in his own environment, and, breaking paradigms and prejudices, becomes a self-confident artist, a citizen of the world who achieves his prominence in the dance universe.”

– Marcos Schechtman and Helena Varvaki, Directors

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