THE UNSTOPPABLES / The mentor

Maria Guimarães

Chin up. Shoulders back.

Maria knows what it takes to stand in the lights. A former festival queen, she teaches Nara to walk, speak and hold her ground with the precision of someone who has done it herself.

Her training reaches beyond the pageant. She wants Nara to recognise the difference between being welcomed into a room and being allowed a voice in it.

Maria’s love for the world of the festival does not make her blind to its failures. She asks difficult questions about the animals, the rules and the people with the power to change them.