The film “Valiant Nation”, by the Portuguese-Angolan director Carlos Conceição, was distinguished at the Locarno Film Festival, in Switzerland, with the Young Jury and Europa Cinemas awards, according to the announcement of the respective juries.
For the director this award represents “the guarantee of [the film] gaining a commercial route”, in the theatre, and of being able to access the programming of more festivals, namely in the United States, taking into account such positive reviews as the one from Variety.
The North-American magazine considered “Valiant Nation” (“Tommy Guns”) a “remarkable” film, “formally and structurally audacious”, “a globally applicable history lesson”.
“Nação Valente”, the second feature film by Portuguese-Angolan director Carlos Conceição, reflects on the end of Portuguese colonialism and the post-war traumas. It was selected for the official competition of the 75th edition of the Locarno Festival, thus also applying for awards from the independent juries.
The Europa Cinemas Label award opens the doors to its network, which translates into “3.059 screens, from 1.217 cinemas, in 739 cities in 42 countries”, where the exhibition of European productions is privileged.
The award was decided by a jury of exhibitors, this year composed by the Portuguese Marta Fernandes, from Midas Filmes, Jean-François Lamarche, from Canada, Víctor Paz, from Spain, and Katarzyna Pryc, from Poland.
“Valiant Nation” was also distinguished with one of the Young Jury prizes, which also contemplates short films, as part of the Cinema and Youth initiative of the Swiss-Italian canton of Ticino.
The distribution of the film is not yet guaranteed, but the premiere should happen in a next Portuguese film festival, as Carlos Conceição told Lusa, the Portuguese news agency at the end of the 75th Locarno Festival.
Following the awards and the critics’ reaction, the decision will be made with his producer: “Terratreme, to whom I owe the film”, he said.
The story of “Valiant Nation” takes place at two different moments in time, at the end of the colonial war, crossing two realities – that of independence groups, which claim their territories, and that of Portuguese soldiers, still anchored in the nationalist ideals of homeland defence.
“I have always been interested, from a cinematographic point of view, in a story that takes place in a time of war and in the context of a war that we associate with the recent history of Portugal,” explained the director.
“I like to think that this film is not so much about the Colonial War as it is about old ideas, those walls that we still haven’t managed to cross. I consider that I transpose them on a daily basis and I think that everyone should make this effort to transpose these old ideas, and overcome the prejudices and limitations that certain conservatisms imply,” he said.
On receiving the award, Carlos Conceição underlined this idea, condemning last Friday’s attack on the British writer Salman Rushdie as an example of a world of violence that has to end.
Carlos Conceição was born in Angola, in 1979, son of three generations of Angolans. The director has both Angolan and Portuguese nationality, and had already addressed the relationship with Angola and Africa in “Serpentarium” (2019), his first feature film.
“There is a tendency to stop showing racism, because it is felt that the representation of racism has fallen into a kind of vicious circle of representation by ‘cliché’, when in fact you can never stop talking about racism. The work is not finished. […] You have to show, accuse, highlight, discuss, dissect and, probably, if it’s through repetition, so be it,” defended the filmmaker.
Variety magazine, in a film where the cinematography (by Vasco Viana) is also praised, highlights the way Conceição demonstrates how “the mentality of colonial domination does not end with the handing over of power”, nor does the granting of autonomy “end with the need for rebellion” of the oppressed.
“The film, disturbing and sombre, ends up giving a globally applicable history lesson, without neglecting the moral and historical contours of Portugal’s debt to Africa. The emotions and ideas that run through ‘Tommy Guns’ could not be more suitably unsettling,” the magazine concludes.
“Nação Valente” is a co-production between Portugal, Angola and France, and features actors such as João Arrais, Anabela Moreira, Gustavo Sumpta and Leonor Silveira.
The cinema of Carlos Conceição has had regular presence in festivals, such as the short films “Boa Noite Cinderela” and “Coelho Mau”, screened in Cannes, “Serpentário”, premiered in Berlin, and “Um Fio de Baba Escarlate”, awarded in Seville.
16/08/2022
