Mortu nega

Introduced by Flora Gomes

According to the director Flora Gomes, Mortu Nega is “a story of a woman who chooses to join the struggle, because she herself wants to be free – and there’s nothing in this world like wanting to be free.” Her sensational feature film debut has long been regarded as the beginning of cinema in Guinea-Bissau, and Gomes has since become one of its most important figures. This unusual and influential epic explores the end of the guerrilla war – and its difficult aftermath – that brought independence to Guinea-Bissau after half a century of brutal Portuguese colonial rule.