Batuque Film Difficulty Ranking: 3
Do you want to go to Cape Verde? Whilst you won’t see the lush beaches in this film, you’ll hear the sounds and soul of the island. Plus you’ll have an amazing Batuque band to tour you around! For a trip to Cape Verde for the price of lunch, watch this film here (Amazon).
Why Watch Batuque?
- It’s the best way to experience Cape Verde without paying for a flight
- If you love music
- To learn about Cape Verdean history
- Meet some of Batuque’s biggest stars
The Breakdown
The film starts with a Batuque band called Raiz di Tambarina playing at a local wedding. All the band members are dressed in white for the occasion and sit in an almost complete circle with a dancer in the middle. They keep the percussion and the vocals going whilst the lead vocalist (hidden in the circle) leads them in their call and response style singing.
As you’ll see, Batuque is alive and well in Cape Verde. However, it’s had a troubled history. Under colonial times in the 1800s the Portuguese attempted to eradicate all forms of black culture. As a result, Batuque was outlawed so ‘honest hardworking folk would not be misled.’ These backwards laws weren’t overruled until the 1970s when independence was finally granted. Raiz di Tambarina (the band in the film) are an example of how intertwined the genre is with Cape Verdean culture. The band, like many of the Batuque stars today, started whilst under prohibition, and like the genre, have outlived it’s persecution.
In addition to the music and history of Batuque, this documentary also shows us life in Cape Verde by following the band members as they go about their day jobs. One of them buys fish from the port to sell inland whilst another is a truck driver. At one point in the film, whilst at the fish market, a group forms spontaneously and starts singing and drumming Batuque with anything ready to hand. The spontaneity shows how ingrained Batuque is into the culture of Cape Verde. It has survived slavery and colonisation and is now a celebrated part of Cape Verde.
Conclusion & What to Watch Next
Batuque is more than a film about Batuque music. Instead, it uses Batuque music to tell the story of Cape Verde: it’s history, people, and culture. You’ll hear the music that defines the nation, before you meet the people behind it and follow them at their ‘day-jobs’. Batuque is an arm-chair traveler’s guide to Cape Verde.
For another musical exploration, go visit the sound of the Democratic Republic of Congo courtesy of the Kasai Allstars. It took home the Best Picture at the African film awards in 2017 and won the Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival. Read more here and go watch it here (Amazon).
Or, if you’re interested in seeing more creative ways of telling the history of a nation, check out The Missing Picture. It tells the story of a Cambodian family looking for a missing picture of their relative lost in the Cambodian genocide. Read more here or go watch it here (Amazon).