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My Voice
(Nha Fala)

Screening on Film
Directed by Flora Gomes.
With Fatou N’Diaye, Jean-Christophe Dollé, Angelo Torres.
Portugal/France/Luxembourg/Cape Verde, 2002, 35mm, color, 90 min.
Kabuverdianu with English subtitles.
Print source: Cinemateca Portuguesa

A colorful musical comedy set in both Paris and the luscious islands of Cape Verde, Nha Fala reveals a snapshot of the life of Vita—played by Fatou N’Diaye—and her journey toward self-understanding and rebirth. Because of a family curse, Vita believes that singing will lead to her death, and yet she is passionately drawn to music. In her journey from Cape Verde to France, and back to her home country, Vita is able to find her voice and celebrate herself and her heritage. Filled with group songs and dances that structure the story, the film is an upbeat portrayal of the weighty topics of feminism, changing relations between the colonizers and the colonized, and African familial traditions surrounding life and death. In honor of Amílcar Cabral—the intellectual and political organizer of independence in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde—Flora Gomes shows his playful appreciation of the revolutionary through an ever-appearing bust, searching for the proper place to be displayed throughout the film. – AV

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