Cinema
Ilhéu de Contenda
Leão Lopes · 1995
Synopsis
On Fogo, in 1964, the death of the head of a large family of landowners opens the division of the estate. The heir, back from Portugal, finds an indebted house, sharecroppers who no longer lower their eyes and a mixed-race merchant who buys up the land as he goes. Alliances come apart around him: the poor relatives make claims, the servants leave, and the order in which everyone had his place ceases to function.
Context
The film adapts a novel published in 1978, from a screenplay written by the director with the novelist himself and the poet José Fanha, and it was financed entirely from outside the country: a Portuguese company, Portuguese public television, a Belgian company and a French one, with the Cape Verdean film institute, which was supporting its first film there and has since disappeared. The director has said that his country put not a penny into it. Cesária Évora's songs accompany the transformation of a society dominated by the volcano.
Who it is for
The action takes place in 1964, under colonial rule, in a society where landowners give way to mixed-race merchants. Knowing this in advance sheds light on the opening scenes.
Prizes and reception
First feature-length fiction film directed by a Cape Verdean. Music prize at Fespaco in 1997 and first prize at the Ourense festival.