Cinema
The Last Will and Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo
O testamento do Senhor Napumoceno
Francisco Manso · 1997
Synopsis
When Napumoceno, a rich merchant of Mindelo, dies, his will is opened: hours of recorded dictation, in which he recounts his arrival from another island at the age of fifteen, his beginnings as an employee, his schemes, his loves and his acts of cowardice. In it he disinherits the nephew who believed himself his sole heir and leaves everything to a daughter whose existence no one knew of. She arrives to take possession of the inheritance and discovers her father tape after tape, at the same time as the family.
Context
The film was shot in São Vicente and presented in August 1997 at the Gramado festival in Brazil, before opening in Cape Verde in September. It is a co-production between several countries, in which the Cape Verdean film institute appears alongside Portuguese television. The screenplay is by the Brazilian Mário Prata, the cinematography by Edgar Moura, the music by Tito Paris and Toy Vieira, and the singer Cesária Évora appears in it. Its director, a well-regarded documentary maker, was making his first fiction film.
Who it is for
One hundred and seventeen minutes, in Portuguese with subtitles. The novel it is based on consists entirely of the reading of a will, which the film replaces with cassettes.
Prizes and reception
First prize at the Gramado Latin American film festival, then prizes for best film and best actor at the Asunción festival, in Paraguay.