Feature film
Sambizanga
Sarah Maldoror · 1972
Synopsis
In 1961, in Luanda, Domingos Xavier, a worker involved in the liberation movement, is arrested by the Portuguese police, beaten and threatened with torture if he does not give up his comrades. His wife, Maria, who knew nothing of his involvement, sets out to find him with her child on her back: long walks along the tracks, from prison to prison, facing colonial bureaucracy. In the course of this quest, she becomes aware of the struggle.
Context
The screenplay, written with Maurice Pons and the director's partner, adapts a story by José Luandino Vieira, imprisoned for his anticolonial commitment. The shoot, impossible in Angola, takes place over forty days in neighbouring Congo, with activists from the liberation movements as performers, among them the Cape Verdean economist Elisa Andrade in the role of Maria. Produced by Isabelle Films, the film was released in France on 26 April 1973 and was shown in Angola only after independence. It was restored in 2021 by L'Image retrouvée, for the Film Foundation's World Cinema Project and the Bologna cinematheque.
Who it is for
A feature-length fiction film of about an hour and a half, in Portuguese, Lingala and Kimbundu; released in France under its original title.
Prizes and reception
Golden Tanit at the Carthage Film Festival in 1972; ranked 136th in the Sight and Sound critics' poll in 2022.
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