''Mortu Nega'' (English: ''Death Denied'' or ''Those Whom Death Refused'') is a 1988 historic film by

Flora Gomes Flora Gomes is a Bissau-Guinean film director. He was born in Cadique, Guinea-Bissau on 31 December 1949 and after high school in Cuba, he decided to study film at the Instituto Cubano del Arte y la Industria Cinematográficos in Havana. Shot f ...

, a director from

Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ) ...

. ''Mortu Nega'' was Gomes' first feature-length film and the first film produced in independent

. It was also the first the first

ethnofiction Ethnofiction refers to a subfield of ethnography which produces works that introduces art, in the form of storytelling, "thick descriptions and conversational narratives", and even first-person autobiographical accounts, into peer-reviewed academi ...

film to show the experiences of the

Guinea-Bissau War of Independence The Guinea-Bissau War of Independence (), or the Bissau-Guinean War of Independence, was an armed independence conflict that took place in Portuguese Guinea from 1963 to 1974. It was fought between Portugal and the African Party for the Independe ...

, blending contemporary history with mythology. Its world premiere was at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...

on August 29, 1988.

Synopsis

1973: Diminga accompanies a group of camouflaged soldiers who travel down a path, in the middle of the

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It ...

, carrying supplies to a war front near

Conakry Conakry (; ; sus, Kɔnakiri; N’ko: ߞߐߣߊߞߙߌ߫, Fula: ''Konaakiri'' 𞤑𞤮𞤲𞤢𞥄𞤳𞤭𞤪𞤭) is the capital and largest city of Guinea. A port city, it serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea. Its p ...

, where Diminga's husband Sako is fighting. The country is ruined and there is death everywhere, but hope is what keeps life worth living. In the encampment where she meets Sako, Diminga does not have much time to enjoy his company. The rebels are gaining ground and they are certain that they will command victory. 1974–77: The end of the war, but not truly an end. There is a great drought across the country and life continues to be difficult. It is true that where Diminga lives, in between the crying, there are great celebrations for the end of the war. But the drought continues, Diminga has a sick husband and other fighting (mostly over rations) starts. The film, in the words of its director, is an African

parable A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, w ...

. The colonies won their independence and eliminated Portuguese colonialism. A question that arises is about Africa's future. As Flora Gomes suggests, Africa cannot be itself without its beliefs, its myths, its philosophy, and its culture.

Interpretation

The year the film premiered, 1988 "not only marks the 25th anniversary of the independence of Guinea-Bissau and the assassination of its leader

Amílcar Cabral Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral (; – ) was a Bissau-Guinean and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer, pan-Africanist, intellectual, poet, theoretician, revolutionary, political organizer, nationalist and diplomat. He was one of Africa's foremo ...

, it is also the year in which the country was practically annihilated by a brutal civil war” (Teresa Ribeiro, a journalist for

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the State media, state-owned news network and International broadcasting, international radio broadcaster of the United States, United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international br ...

). The film is an “elegy, not for the victims of the war of liberation, but for its survivors." ''Mortu Nega'' has become a cult film seen as having “no ideologies or morals. It is a love story: nervous, carnal, sensitive” (René Marx, Pariscope, March 14, 1990).

Cast

* Bia Gomes as Diminga * Tunu Eugenio Almada as Sako * Mamadu Uri Balde as Sanabaio * M'Make Nhasse as Lebeth * Sinho Pedro DaSilva as Estin * Homma Nalete as Mandembo * Caio Leucadio Almeida as Onkono * Brinsam as Irene Lopes * Abi Cassama as Nurse * Ernesto Moreira as Doctor *

as Head of Sector

Technical information

* Script –

, Manuel Rambault Barcellos, and David Lang * Production – National Film Institute of Guinea-Bissau * Producers – Cecília Fonseca, Odette Rosa, Nina Neves Aimée and Jacques Zajdermann * Photography – Dominique Gentil * Editing – Christiane Lack * Format – 35 mm film * Genre – historical

docufiction Docufiction (or docu-fiction) is the cinematographic combination of documentary and fiction, this term often meaning narrative film. It is a film genre which attempts to capture reality such as it is (as direct cinema or cinéma vérité) a ...

* Duration – 92 minutes * Distribution – California Newsreel

Festivals and Shows

* 1988 –

, August 29 (2 Honorable Mentions) * 1989 –

Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou The Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou or FESPACO) is a film festival in Burkina Faso, held biennially in Ouagadougou, where the organization is based. It ...

(FESPACO), March * 1989 –

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

, May 16 * 1989 – Belgian Cinedecouvertes, July * 1989 –

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

– November 16–20 * 1990 –

Seattle International Film Festival The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees. The SIFF runs for more th ...

– May 28 * 1990 – Journées Cinématographiques de Carthage (French),

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

, October – November (bronze Tanit award) * 1997 �
9th Annual Cascade Festival of African Films
February 20 * 2000 – New York Film Center, June 20 * 2000 – African Film Festival, November 26 * 2003 –

Retrospective and African Film Festival at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

References

External links

Mortu Nega (1988)
– IMDb page about ''Mortu Nega''
Mortu Nega
– California Newsreel
Mortu Nega
– Film.com page about ''Mortu Nega''
Mortu Nega (1988) – refusing to give up
– Overview/review of the film

– Portland Community College course page about ''Mortu Nega''.

– Brown University, Department of African Studies
L'Afrique Subsaharienne et la Mondialisation
– article by Catherine Maya (French) * Bissau-Guinean films 1988 films Ethnofiction films Films set in the 1970s Films set in Guinea Films set in Guinea-Bissau {{FESPACO Oumarou Ganda Prize, state=expanded