Dir/Wri: Pedro Pinho | Docudrama Portuguese 221’
Transport The Shining to the arid desert of West Africa and you’ve got the gist of this captivating feature that often drifts into eco docudrama territory. There are also echoes of Lucretia Martel’s Zama. A man arrives in a distant territory and battles to survive.
The film also plays out as a potted socio economic picture of a contemporary African nation and formal Portuguese colony that sees a stranger gradually submitting to the circumstances that gradually envelope him.
Sergio, an environmental engineer, accepts an ecological mission in Guinea Bissau where he develops complex relationships with the intractable locals while trying to fathom out what happened to his predecessor Leonardo who disappeared after failing to deliver his final report. Sergio wonders whether the same fate awaits him in this mysterious country.
Surrender to the intoxicating spell of this three and a half hour film and one thing’s for sure by the end of this slow burner, driven forward by its beguiling soundtrack, you’re likely to have a working knowledge of Portuguese.
The team are Portuguese but the environment is totally foreign and while Sergio tries to get to grips with their exotic languorous ways he is captivated by the rhythms and local customs and the locals’ disgruntlement with the lack of public services and basic provisions, such as fresh water, in this third world nation.
Sergio is an enigmatic emotionally unstable man who seems confused and unsure of his sexuality and this is compounded by the polyamorous and contradictory behaviour of the inhabitants who question the progress of the West and only see workers’ blood spilt in constructing majestic cathedrals, museums and public buildings to serve first world prétentions.
The film also touches on other themes such as women’s rights and misogyny in a narrative that turns on an ongoing conflict of interest between locals and outside agencies.
After an injury working in deep mud Sergio (Sergio Coragem) becomes increasingly disoriented and perplexed when he is offered a large amount of money to bring his own report to an early close. His friends GUI (Jonathan Guilherme) and Diara (Cleo Diara) give him mixed messages. Sergio feels he’s being tricked or mislead by Diara’s beguiling ways and these scenes are sexually explicit and involve anal intercourse.
A journey up river broadens the narrative into wider more general concerns and provides enchanting exposure to the local flora and fauna. Here in the depths of the jungle far away from the city that Sergio meets a woman who seems content with her life which provides everything she needs. In contrast a local man claims the construction of roads into the capital Bissau would provide for the young to work and stay in the village.
This is an enchanting and satisfying film full of questions and contradictions about a country resisting but also welcoming change, about those who work towards progress but others who reject it. Pinho crafts a deep and engrossing study of a nation in flux. @MeredithTaylor .
UN CERTAIN REGARD | CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 2025