Miguel Eek’s “Amílcar”, which will make its world premiere at IDFA’s Envision Competition, has released its first trailer. Odd Slice Films is handling international sales for the film about an African anti-colonial leader.
Director, producer Javier del Alamo, co-screenwriter Alba Lombardia, and editor Federico del Perro Bejar will be attending the premiere in Amsterdam on November 16th.
The film is described as a “poetic documentary essay” on Amilcar Cabral, an agronomist, poet, and revolutionary who led anti-colonial struggles in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. The film blends archival footage with recent 16mm footage to reveal “a visionary whose ideas about justice and dignity remain urgent today.”
The film reimagines Cabral’s inner voice through his political writings, poetry, and personal letters, and blends previously unseen archives, Portuguese colonial films, revolutionary Guinea footage and newly shot 16mm footage to “take viewers on a personal and historical journey.” It is a “contemplative visual diary that evokes both the public and the private: the visionary leader and the lone thinker.”
In less than a decade, Cabral united more than a million Guineans in a struggle against Portuguese colonial rule, liberated three-quarters of Guinea-Bissau’s countryside, and inspired other African countries to revolt and assert independence. He was assassinated in 1973 by members of his own party, PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde).
The screenplay was written by Lombardy and Eek. Producers are Eke, Del Alamo, Luis Correia, and Marie Dumoulin. The film is produced by Mosaic Producciones and co-produced by France’s Les Docs du Nord, Portugal’s Lx Filmes, Sweden’s Sysifos and Cape Verde’s Korikaxoru. This work was produced with support from the National Institute of the Balearic Islands, CNC, Procirep, Pictanovo, ICIB, ICAA, Creative Europe, ICA and RTP.
