Iluminuras Estúdio de Animação

Maria Estrela is a girl who loves listening to bedtime stories. But tired of hearing the same stories over and over again, she decides to make up a “fantastical tale” of her own, telling the story of how the Terrible Mapinguari of the Amazon, a gigantic, one-eyed monster with a huge mouth in its belly, lost its only eye in the forest, and how the fearless Maria Estrela, riding Esperança, her fabulous winged Boi-Bumbá, sets off on a quest to find the Mapinguari’s lost eye.

The Story of Zahy tells the creation myth of the Moon according to the Tembé-Tenetehara Indigenous people of Brazil. Zahy is a brave warrior sent by the Indigenous god Mahyra to do many good deeds. However, driven by pride, he decides to do something forbidden in the village. When his actions are discovered, Zahy must face irreversible consequences. Narrated in Tupi-Tenetehara.

When Maria’s father begins reading the story of the Boiúna, a gigantic and menacing snake that has slept for centuries in the depths of the Amazonian rivers, the girl interrupts him, eager to tell the story her own way, as one of her “Fantastical Tales”: a wild story made up from her imagination. She tells how, after centuries of slumber, the legendary snake awakens furious, causing the waters to churn, boats to sink, and cities to tremble. But what could have made the enormous creature wake up so angry? To uncover the mystery, Maria takes on her alter ego, Maria Estrela, and embarks on a journey through the rivers of the Amazon to discover how to soothe the Boiúna’s heart.