Freddy's Cine It

Theme Week Wrap-Up Angola Trip Week This week took longer than expected, partly because work got heavy and partly because one specific film drained our motivation hard. Still, this lineup gave us a fascinating tour through Angola's history, conflict and culture, with documentaries and hybrids that opened new directions for reading and research. Top Pick of the Week Another Day of Life (2018) - 92/100 A compelling account of Angola's war years through the eyes of a foreign journalist, with striking rotoscope animation and rich political context. Ranked Board Five films, one destination, and very different levels of impact. Some were eye-opening and culturally rich, others less successful, but the week still offered a strong perspective on Angolan stories and the region around it. #1 of the Week Another Day of Life (2018) ...

Air Conditioner is a 2020 Angolan film directed by Fradique (Mario Bastos). The film had its world premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam and premiered June 6, 2020 in Luanda at the We Are One online film festival. The film was shot in Luanda by Generation 80. The screenplay is co-written by Ery Claver. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Conditioner_(film) When the air-conditioners mysteriously start to fall in city of Luanda, Matacedo (security guard) and Zezinha (housemaid) have the mission of retrieving their boss's ac. source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10389922/ ***SPOILER ALERT*** A Slow and Confusing Return to Angola Week FREDDY: We apologize for leaving our Angola week open for so long before finishing this review. Work swallowed all our time, but I still remember this movie clearly and not in a good way. KRASNAYA: Hello movie lovers! We pretty much went into hibernation after watching Air Conditioner. The ...

Hollow City is a 2004 full-length movie directed by Angolan-born director Maria Joao Ganga. The film is one of the first to be produced in Angola since the end of the civil war, and the first film produced by an Angolan woman. Filming was done on location in Luanda, Angola. International versions of the film are in the Portuguese language with English subtitles. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_City_(film) The film centers around the life of an orphan named N'dala, who is taken to the city of Luanda after the death of his parents during the Angolan civil war. Wanting to return to his hometown of Bie, N'dala flees from the nuns who have saved him into the streets of the city. He wanders from place to place meeting various figures, such as a young man named Ze who tries to help him find a home. Later in the film N'dala is taken under the wing of a criminal named Joka who exploits him for his own uses. source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt03975...

Death Metal Angola is a 2012 Angolan-American music biographical film directed by Jeremy Xido. Death Metal Angola received unanimous acclaim during its festival run. The Huffington Post's E. Nina Rothe called Death Metal Angola a "must-watch film" and "a cult-classic in the making." source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Metal_Angola Death Metal Angola follows a loving Angolan couple, Sonia and Wilker, whose love for death metal music is bringing hope to the town and children of Huambo, and Angola as a country. source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2118609/ ***SPOILER ALERT*** Heavy Music Rising from a Wounded Country KRASNAYA: The third film of the week is Death Metal Angola from American director Jeremy Xido. When Freddy pressed play, I honestly rolled my eyes because I did not feel like listening to death metal for 83 minutes. But the documentary quickly becomes much more than that. It opens with horrifying s...

Into the Okavango is a 2018 American National Geographic documentary film written, directed and produced by Neil Gelinas. The film was predominantly shot in Angola and Botswana. It was released on 22 April 2018 and gained critical acclaim for the portrayal of wildlife. The documentary film was also screened in a handful of international film festivals and also won several awards and nominations. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Okavango A passionate conservation biologist brings together a river bushman fearful of losing his past and a young scientist uncertain of her future on an epic, four-month expedition across three countries, through unexplored and dangerous landscapes, in order to save the Okavango Delta, one of our planet's last pristine wildernesses. source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7573844/ ***SPOILER ALERT*** An Epic Expedition Into Angola's Wild Heart KRASNAYA: Hello friends! Today we have an incredibl...

Another Day of Life is a 2018 Polish-Spanish-Belgian-German-Hungarian animated feature co-production directed by Raúl de la Fuente and Damian Nenow, based on Ryszard Kapuściński's autobiographical account, Another Day of Life. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Day_of_Life_(film) A gripping story of a three-month-long journey that renowned Polish reporter Ryszard Kapuscinski took across Angola, ravaged by a war in which the front lines shifted like a kaleidoscope, from one day to the next. source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2967856/ ***SPOILER ALERT*** A Fierce Introduction to Angola's Civil War FREDDY: We got off to a strong start on our Angola week. It almost had to be a war film, since the country endured civil war from 1975 to 2002. This hybrid of animation and documentary hit me especially hard because it connects with my own family history. My maternal family lived in Angola until the Portuguese Carnation Revolut...

Weekly Theme Announcement Welcome to Our 13th Week: Angola Week Hello gente bonita! This week's movie raffle is taking us on a five-day trip to Angola. We are diving into films set in the country or made by filmmakers connected to it, and we are going in knowing this may be one of our hardest theme weeks so far. Angola is not one of the most prolific film-producing countries, which makes this search more difficult but also more exciting. We expect a mix of war stories, documentaries and discoveries that help us understand more about a country with a beautiful landscape and a difficult modern history. So this week we are heading to the land of the Giant Sable Antelope to find out what Angolan cinema, and cinema about Angola, has to offer. "Omunu nda ngo wafa kami ondalu, ava vasyala vayota." The person who dies does not extinguish the fire; the living continue to use it. - Angolan proverb in Umbundu ...