Among many short films featured in the 17th Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, which started Thursday, one about China catches people's attention: Sheeliton.

The film from Brazilian director Marcelo Marao describes the Marao's trip to China and many surprises one can find when dealing with a completely different culture.

Marao traveled to China in 2011, when another animation of his was featured in a Chinese festival. There, he found many habits and attitudes which seemed strange to his culture and upbringing. He was sometimes confused and sometimes pleased, and wrote a series of e-mails to his friends describing the experience.

"When I came back, a friend insisted that I should turn those e-mails into a story," Marao said.

That is how the movie was born. Sheeliton is Marao's 12th movie and his most personal project. He wrote, directed, animated and even made the voice-over in the short film. The backgrounds Marao uses in the animation are based on his own photographs of the trip.

As the movie is very personal, Marao was surprised by its success.Besides being picked up for the Rio festival, Sheeliton was exhibited in 20 festivals in Brazil and it will be exhibited in two festivals in Greece this month.

"The film was finished in the beginning of this year and we started submitting to festivals and, to my surprise, so far it was exhibited in more festivals than my other films: 20 in Brazil. And in several festivals, it won awards for screenplay, which was an even bigger surprise. There is no screenplay, it is a story told from my e-mails," he said.

The Rio international film festival, the largest annual event of its kind in Brazil, has attracted 250 movies from some 60 countries. Endi

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