Un héros

I have a general rule of thumb about movies from Africa- I will see anything that comes there. Sometimes I love what I see, I often feel ambiguous, but rarely do I hate. That's what you get when you watch movies based on geography. I just feel though, that I know so little about certain places in the world, I mean I can't even visualize what the majority of the non-Western world looks like, and films help fill that gap. This particular movie falls into the ambiguous category, a film with beautiful moments, whose parts don't add up to a cohesive whole. Humanism runs throughout however, and that seems to be a theme in African movies, and is something I love.

This particular movie revolves around two main characters: a soldier, no, a sergeant, as he fervently reminds us, named Manu, who lost a leg in the 26-year civil war. In addition to lacking a leg, he's out of a job and a home. He's desperate for a prosthetic leg, but remains proud throughout the whole demeaning process of pulling his life back together. There is also an adolescent boy (can't remember his name) who lives with his stern but loving grandmother, and dreams of the day his father will return home. He gets into trouble by stealing and getting into fights, but we know deep down he's a good kid. There is an assortment of stereotyped characters, the upper-crust beautiful woman who teaches the poor, the hooker with the heart of gold, dirty politicians, another upper-crust beautiful person, this time an asshole who profits off of his familial ties to find a secure job in the government, and so on. The plot starts to get complicated when Manu wakes up one morning on the street to find his leg stolen.

Unfortunately, the film falls into the trap of cliché and overwrought melodrama. There are, however, some scenes that stand out. The moon in the sky falling into the earth in the form of a basketball thus providing a nice segue into the next scene, or when the boy lifts the prosthetic leg he has stolen into the night sky so that it can point to where his father might be. Or when the teacher and Manu fall asleep outside of the hospital and she wakes up to find herself resting on his shoulder. The tender look between the two speaks a thousand words. The all-to-clean ending however, feels tacked on and certain societal issues could have been examined more deeply, but like I said, it's refreshing to see anything from Africa, particularly how everyday people live, eat, drink, hate, and love. And I can ALWAYS listen to Portuguese.

cococravescinema.blogspot.com

I saw this film at the Dubai Film Festival following the hype of its win of the World Dramatic Grand Prize at Sundance festival. It was not a bad film but how can one award it a Grand Prize--unless, of course, its competition was even worse. Sundance needs to re-evaluate its basic standards.

The plus points of the film: 1. The subject of land-mines is real and immediate danger around the world. 2. The first major feature film from Angola. 3. A debut film from an Angolan filmmaker--with the sufficient assistance of Portugal and France, with no film industry support from Angola. 4. Few know that Angola has survived 20 years of civil strife and a generation has spent a major life span being associated with it.

The negative points: 1. The film-making quality is at best average (even for African standards). There are better films coming out of Africa in the past two years--Sembene's "Moolade" (Senegal), Mohamad Asli's "In Casablanca, elephants can fly" (another debut, from Morocco), and Mark Dornford-May's "U-Carmen eKhayelitsha" (another debut, from South Africa). 2. The opening aerial shot is much raved about--Wim Wender's did it better in the "Million Dollar Hotel" 3. The plot meanders from the child seeking lost father (this could have been developed further)to the adult seeking familial sustenance and the interplay with lovers. 4. Luanda's urban water shortage is inferred to but never developed further.

Oumar Diop, the lead player, has an arresting on-screen presence compared to real life (I met him in Dubai) but is too wooden to be called an actor of consequence.

Many films are getting prizes at festivals that could eventually devalue the festivals themselves.

Involving story of life in the Angolan capital Luanda. Vitório is a veteran of the liberation war and subsequent civil war, has lost a leg to a landmine and has to try and get by on the streets, while looking for work and love - trying to find a way to fit back into society.

Meanwhile Manu a schoolboy has his own struggles going on; brought up by his grandmother he wants to search for his father (missing in the war), gets involved in petty crime and tries to avoid the local hoodlums. His teacher Joana does her best to keep him in school.

Eventually all the characters' paths cross in a variety of ways.

The film is basically a portrait of Luanda as it tries to recover from years of war and disruption. People everywhere are trying to rebuild their lives, find missing friends or relatives and make ends meet. Obviously life is very hard for most, but considerably easier for others - mainly those in the government and their relatives.

This is the sort of film Ken Loach might make if he lived in Africa. Through the individual stories of the characters numerous political and social issues are teased out, for the most part with considerable subtlety. Class relations, the role of politics, the situation of women (and such women - phew...), the landmine issue (70,000 Angolans have lost limbs and much of the country is still mined) and the desperate struggle to survive are all woven in.

There are some stunning aerial shots of Luanda at the start and end of the film, but in general the camera serves the actors and the story rather than the other way round. The standard of acting is generally high. There's nothing groundbreaking in cinematic terms here, but the film is a valuable window into the daily life of a society and a continent normally represented in the Western media only by images of war and famine.

The Hero was made completely in Angola, which is noteworthy given the country doesn't have a movie industry. So making the movie at all is a fairly remarkable accomplishment, but The Hero was sufficiently impressive to win the World Dramatic Grand Prize at Sundance. (Apparently, this was something the director had never expected, as he had left the festival before the winners were announced. The "sales agent" was the only one left to talk about the movie at the awards screening!) This is a powerful, touching and compassionate film about the intersecting lives of individuals as Angola attempts to rebuild from within after a devastating 30-year civil war. First-time director Zeze Gamboa clearly has an intimate understanding of the challenges facing the country. (Interesting fact, there are over three active land mines in Angola for every one person!) But at the same time, you can feel Gamboa's conviction that humanity can shine through the challenges and adversity. And while rebuilding the infrastructure and curing the social ills will take time, the human spirit can still triumph through individuals.

This is an inspiring and enlightening movie.

It's an amazing film for a country where has its independence in 1975 and has no film industry. Simple story of this film shows us the main problems of Angola after 27 year long civil war. 1.5 millions of homeless and 4 millions of people who have effected from the war were made Angola another problematic like Liberia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. Like the other countries in the line of middle-Africa, Angola has a struggle against the poverty as a result of past colonial experiences. Health, education problems and unemployment are storied in two peoples' life's intersection. The naiveness of the story may be the main lack of the film, but it builds an objective gaze to a post-colonial problems of African Nations. And also this film may trigger a third world national cinema industry for African Nations.