Mortu Nega

1973. Diminga, a thirty year old Guinean woman walks across the bush with a group of combatants to join her husband Sako at the front. On her journey she discovers her country has been left in a state of ruin and desolation by the Portugese. Days of sorrow: death is everywhere in the landscape. Days of hope: soon the war of liberation will be over.
At the camp, Diminga and Sako barely have time to spend together. Around them events move rapidly.
1977. Peace does not necessarily end war. In Diminga’s village there is a lot of laughter, a lot of joy, yet there are also a few cries of rage and a few tears. The country is struck by drought, another blow of fate. They must keep fighting for the land to bear fruit. The light is harsh. Evrything is still, unmovable. Back with Diminga, Sako is ill. So Diminga appeals to the ancient gods...

«Mortu Nega is a remarkable film because it deals with a society of which we don’t know nothing. War isn’t really shown. We guess it through concerns of people or through their way to concern theirselves with others, solidarity, alertness. Women are nicely filmed too: their generosity, their taste for life. Other scene, during an adult’s training session: a host tries to explain abstract ideas like «unity», «progress». The word «fight» is more easy for them: men have lived this during the war, and women know what is fight to feed children. In a few pictures, all is said about the necessity and the difficulty of education.»

Thérèse-Marie Deffontaines
in Le Monde, March 8th, 1990