An elderly man in a neutral setting, in the twilight of a studio, is talking about the years that he has spent as a mercenary in the elite Portuguese commando during the wars in Mozambique and Angola. In his calm voice, he tells the story with all the details of the killings, he comments the political history and sometimes even jokes. His story is a mixture of a confession and a prideful narrative. He is trying to name facts but they dissolve amongst other memories and lose their weight. This documentary film is not only an insight to a complex inside world of a human being, but an investigation of the boundaries of the documentary genre, too.
About the film
Details
- Running time
- 1 hr. 12 min.
- Country, year
- Portugal, 2012
- Genre
- Documentary, War
- Language
- Portuguese
- Subtitles
- English, Lithuanian
- Age rating
- Pegi 13
Credits
- Director
- Salomé Lamas
- Producers
- Luís Urbano, Sandro Aguilar
- Cast
- Paulo de Figueiredo
- More information
- www.imdb.com
Festivals and awards
- Doc Lisboa 2012
- Documenta Madrid 2013
Director
Salomé Lamas
Salomé Lamas has studied cinema in Lisbon and Prague, visual arts (MFA) in Amsterdam and is a Ph.D candidate in film studies in Coimbra. Her works challenge the apparent boundary between documentary and fiction in the moving image. The director analyses the relation between the narrative, memory and history, she also tries to give an insight of the traumatic experiences, invisible history and colonial violence, always focusing on the human being.
The length of her films vary, and her work has been showcased both in art venues and film festivals such as the Netherlands Instituut voor Mediakunst, BAFICI, Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Rome Film Festival, Documenta Madrid, Guggenheim Bilbao, Harvard Film Archive, Cinéma du Réel, etc. Lamas was awarded fellowships at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, Bogliasco Foundation, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm, etc.
