Actress Hermila Guedes first caught the attention of moviegoers when cast as the desperate Brazilian mother who is forced to raffle off her body when abandoned by her uncaring husband in director Karim Aïnouz's 2006 festival favorite Suely in the Sky. Honored with a Best Actress award at the 28th New Latin American Cinema Festival in Havana for her role in the film, Guedes could next be seen in director Paulo Caldas' Portuguese-language drama Happy Desert -- which told the grim tale of a young Brazilian girl who slides into a harrowing life of prostitution.