Flora Gomes

Set in post colonial Guinea Bissau, Vicente, a disenchanted hero of the independence struggle has only grudgingly adapted himself to post-revolutionary society.

In the village of Amanha Lundju, with each birth, a tree is planted. The trees grow with each child, growing higher and living longer, becoming the villager's soul. But day after day, trees are cut down for survival, and wood has become rare. When Dou, the nomad, comes back from the savannah, his twin, Hami, has just died. The village is extremely tensed. (festival-cannes.fr)

The story of a woman who searches through the country for her husband, a resistant, while the war for independence is raging. She finds him at last and saves his life. When peace finally arrives, they have to learn how to be together again and start living in a destroyed land. The film, in the words of its director, is an African parable. The colonies won their independence and eliminated Portuguese colonialism. A question that arises is about Africa's future.

It has always been a firm conviction of the family that any woman who sings, will die. Now, while a girl is in France she becomes an international star. She realises that sooner rather than later her mother in Africa will learn that she sings. To solve this dilemma she goes back to her native village and arranges her own funeral, albeit with instantaneous rebirth. She is lying in the coffin while all invited guest form a queue and pass the coffin one by one.