Mortu Nega Film Difficulty Ranking: 3
Why Watch Mortu Nega?
- If you want to see an African protest movie from Guinea Bissau
- For guerilla warfare along the lines of Che and Flame
- To see that war doesn’t end when the fighting stops
From: Guinea Bissau, Africa Watch: Trailer, Kanopy, Buy Next: Flame, Sambizanga, Lucia
An African Protest Movie
The fight for independence in Guinea Bissau in the 1970’s was not a unique event in Africa or the world. It was one fight against colonialism and systemic racism among many. In homage to the global movement, the opening of Mortu Nega powerfully links the soldiers fighting for independence to the black civil rights movements worldwide.
After men, women, and children stock up on arms to help the soldiers, they all march and sing for days across fields and through jungles. The long march visually links them to the famous long marches of the U.S. African American Civil Rights Movement (see Selma for a cinematic portrayal of the Selma to Montgomery March). The call and response singing aurally links them to music associated with slavery in the Americas and the Civil Rights Movement (see here). In referencing the Black Civil Rights Movements worldwide, Mortu Nega adds Guinea Bissau to the fight against colonialism and systemic racism.
A popular Guerilla War
The lack of an identifiable enemy in Mortu Nega paints the inevitability of Guinea Bissau’s independence from the Portuguese. The only white Europeans we see are commandeering the helicopter that ambushes the marching soldiers; none are seen when the soldiers storm a Portuguese fort. However, the freedom fighters do capture some Guinea-Bissauans that were forced to fight for the colonizers. The hidden presence of the colonizers in Mortu Nega serves to show their vulnerability. It shows that they’ve been pushed off the land and into the air and can now only fight from a distance. In contrast, the increasingly visible presence of the independence movement shows the uprisings power in numbers.
War Never Ends
Mortu Nega also follows the independence fighters as they return home after victory to show the lasting effects of war. After months away from home, Diminga returns on her own to an empty, dilapidated house and a village without food or water. On top of that, she and everyone around her is exhausted from the recent battles in a lifetime’s struggle for freedom. The need to rebuild makes the long awaited victory feels subdued. War doesn’t just kill people in fighting, but also in the famines and devastation that comes with it. However, despite the depressing signs, the film ends with a traditional ceremony/celebration which symbolizes hope that united together, the country and people will reclaim the lives that they had before colonization.
What to Watch Next
There’s a lot of great African films about the struggle against colonialism. Two more less seen examples I’d recommend are Flame, which features two female freedom fighters in Zimbabwe, and Sambizanga, which follows a woman looking for her son during the Independence movement in Angola. There’s always Battle of Algiers too – probably the best revolutionary movie made, and one of my personal favorites. And if you’re looking for revolutionary films from outside of Africa, head to Cuba to watch I Am Cuba and Lucia.
Or if you’re looking for more films that deal with the impact of war, check out Munyurangabo from Rwanda and Beatriz’s War from East Timor.
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