One of 6 feature film projects pitched at the Annecy’s Intl. Animation Film Market (MIFA) is what will be a Brazil-set version of Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” – one of the most controversial tales of the last century+, telling the story of Marlow, the cargo boat captain in Africa at the end of the 19th century, on assignment to return Kurtz, an ivory trader with a reputation, who encounters the “darkness” of the Congo wilderness, and the “darkness” that resides within human beings, after witnessing the brutalization of Africans by white European traders.

It’s a story that’s a number of films (shorts and features) have taken inspiration from – “Apocalypse Now,” Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 work, likely being the most widely-known.

Sao Paulo-based Karmatique Imagens production house is behind the projected $3 million project, which the filmmakers say will be the first attempt to focus on what they term the “B side” of Rio de Janeiro through an animation feature; essentially, not the Brazil that you see in the lovely vacation brochures, with the beautiful beaches and such, with their stated goal being to expose the racial, social and economic contrasts that still haunt Brazilian society.

Their version of Conrad’s story will be set in the near-future, in a riot and corruption-laden Rio de Janeiro, and will follow Police officer Marlow, who is asked to find a certain Captain Kurtz – a famous policeman who has gone missing in mysterious circumstances. The mission has to be carried out in a boat, undertaking a dangerous journey through the favelas of Rio de Janeiro (the same favelas that were the setting for cross-over films like “City of God”).

The film will be directed by Rogerio Nunes, from a script he co-wrote with Sergio Nesteriuk.

The movie, which will also be titled “Heart of Darkness” (“Coração das trevas” in Portuguese) will be accompanied by a mini-series made up of four half-hour parts.

The project bowed this week as part of Annecy Feature Film 2014 MIFA Pitches Progam – a section that is said to be fast-becoming a key program where new talent emerges.