Feature film · A way to begin
Those Whom Death Refused
Mortu Nega
Flora Gomes · 1988
Synopsis
In 1973, during the war of independence, Diminga, a Guinean woman in her thirties, wants to join her husband Sako, who is fighting at the front against the Portuguese army. She crosses the bush with a column of fighters and discovers a devastated country. She finds Sako wounded and helps him survive. Once peace has come, the couple must rebuild themselves in a ruined land, where drought follows war.
Context
Written by Flora Gomes with Manuel Rambaut Barcelos and David Lang, the film covers the years 1973 to 1977, from the armed struggle to the aftermath of independence. Bia Gomes plays the role of Diminga. Shown at Venice in 1988, it received two mentions there, then the Oumarou Ganda Prize and the prize for best actress at Fespaco, and the Bronze Tanit at Carthage. Africultures sees in it the liberation struggle seen from the level of a couple.
Who it is for
An eighty-five-minute film in Creole, subtitled in French; a parable rather than a war story.
Prizes and reception
The film launched its director's international career and is still screened in film archives.
Sources for this page 5
The pages consulted to check this page.