Rubel, Ouro/Reckoner
Larissa Zaidan
KAUS
Director's Works
Larissa Zaidan is a Brazilian director and photographer who began her career at VICE in 2016, documenting youth and LGBTQIA+ culture. Her work has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Wired. As a director, she has collaborated with brands including Nike, Spotify, and TikTok, as well as artists like Rico Dalasam and Mano Brown. Her work has received international recognition, including awards for Best Music Video at the Clio Awards and the M-V-F Awards.
BACKGROUND
The project emerged from the desire to visually translate the emotional landscape of Rubel’s album Beleza. Mas Agora a Gente Faz o Quê com Isso?, written in a post-pandemic context marked by introspection, silence, and restrained emotion. The challenge was to create a fictional narrative that could dialogue with this sensibility without relying on exposition or conventional storytelling. By setting the film in the outskirts of Greater São Paulo, the work also seeks to shift the gaze toward characters and spaces often underrepresented in Brazilian audiovisual culture, portraying them with intimacy and respect.
CREATIVE IDEA
To create a short film that merges two songs (Ouro and Reckoner) into a single emotional experience built through gestures, glances, and silence. Rather than following a linear plot, the film observes four characters connected by unspoken feelings, allowing meaning to emerge through atmosphere and rhythm. Music becomes the emotional backbone of the narrative, while the images function as fragments of presence and memory.
INSIGHTS & STRATEGY
The key insight was understanding that the album operates primarily through feeling rather than explicit narrative. The strategy was therefore to adopt a minimalist language, avoiding dialogue and overt drama, and focusing on subtle performances and observation. By combining professional and non-professional actors, the film blurs the line between fiction and documentary, reinforcing authenticity and emotional resonance.
EXECUTION
The film was shot entirely on 35mm film, a deliberate aesthetic and conceptual choice that adds texture, imperfection, and a sense of timelessness. All locations are real, captured mostly with natural light and minimal intervention. The camera maintains an intimate and observant presence, while the editing respects the rhythm of bodies and gestures, allowing emotion to surface without emphasis or explanation.
