AM Lukas is suing Nuno Lopes for “drugging and raping her at the Tribeca Film Festival, forcing her to take anti-HIV medication and causing her post-traumatic stress disorder.”

• AM Lukas had just left film school when she says she was raped by Nuno Lopes
• She is suing him in New York and filed the lawsuit on Monday, just three days before the deadline

By Dominic Yeatman

Published: 05:41, November 21, 2023 | Updated: 05:41, November 21, 2023

New York filmmaker AM Lukas has accused Nuno Lopes, the Portuguese star of the Netflix drama series White Lines, of drugging and raping her after an event at the city’s Tribeca Film Festival in 2006.

Lukas, whose real name is Anna Martemucci, had just completed his film studies and was attending a friend’s premiere party when she claimed the acclaimed actor and DJ spiked her with a drink and took her to his apartment.

Their lawsuit was filed in New York on Monday, just three days before the deadline for claims under the state’s Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily lifts the statute of limitations for historical sexual assault lawsuits.

The filmmaker, whose 2018 short film One Cambodian Family Please for My Pleasure screened at the Sundance Festival, says she had to take HIV medication after the attack, which left her with post-traumatic stress disorder, as she remembers it returned to it.

Lukas says she was forced to take anti-HIV medication and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after the attack

Nuno Lopes as Duarte “Boxer” Silva, pictured alongside Spanish actress Marta Milans, who plays Kika in “White Lines.”

Lopes has a number of theater and television appearances and has worked in Portugal and Brazil. Pictured left with the Orizzonti Award for Best Actor for “Saint George” during the closing ceremony of the 73rd Venice Film Festival at the Sala Grande in September 2016 and right without a beard during the 65th annual Cannes Film Festival in May 2012

“We cannot accept a world in which the perpetrators of vile and inhumane behavior can live out their lives in the open air with impunity and without social consequences while their victims suffer in silence,” she said as she filed her case with the Eastern District of New York.

“Mr Lopes was given the opportunity to take responsibility for his actions: to acknowledge what he did; account for it and apologize.

“He immediately refused and made it clear that he would never admit wrongdoing of any kind.”

In her lawsuit, she recalls that shortly after meeting Lopes, her body felt “unusually heavy.”

She had little immediate memory of the night other than Lopes holding up her limp legs and “raping her from the front as she slipped in and out of consciousness,” they say.

Her other memories included: “Mr. Lopes raped Lukas from behind while Lukas wondered where she was and who she was with, and Mr. Lopes masturbated over Lukas’ naked, motionless body.”

They say Lopes called her a taxi around 7:30 a.m. the next morning and gave her $30 as payment, along with his phone number.

Shortly after, she received a message from an unknown number that sounded like a man was masturbating and moaning while calling Lukas’ name into the phone.

Lukas’ lawyer Michael Willemin said he was “inspired by our client’s bravery in coming forward.”

Lukas: She “cannot accept a world in which perpetrators of vile and inhumane behavior can live out their lives in the open with impunity and without social consequences, while their victims suffer in silence.”

Lukas has 430,000 followers on Instagram, has made a name for himself as a DJ and is one of the biggest stars in the Portuguese-speaking world

“As we have seen time and time again, the film industry has repeatedly given men like Mr. Lopes permission to engage in sexual assault without consequences.”

Lopes, who has 430,000 followers on Instagram, has appeared in 52 productions as an actor and won five Golden Globes in his native Portugal.

“I’m not looking forward to the way in which Mr. Lopes’ lawyers will, I’m sure, try to humiliate and invalidate me,” Lukas said.

“But I will not let that stop me from pursuing justice.” has contacted Lopes for comment.

AM Lukas is suing Nuno Lopes for “drugging and raping her at the Tribeca Film Festival, forcing her to take anti-HIV medication and causing her to develop post-traumatic stress disorder.”