Hamilcar

In 2013, during a trip to Cape Verde, I discovered the story of Amílcar Cabral. I was fascinated by the determination that led Hamilcar to dedicate his life to a seemingly crazy dream: the union of two countries to fight for their independence. Who was this young African agricultural engineer? How did you get that international support for a small territory to challenge Portugal?

That’s how I formed a small team and started interviewing friends, family, and colleagues. I discovered that Amílcar Cabral is, even today, a controversial character who arouses opposing opinions in Guinea Bissau as well as in Cape Verde and Portugal. It has not been easy to get a project like this off the ground without being African or Portuguese, but it is this same aspect that has allowed me to be an impartial interlocutor in which the testimonies trust.

For the last five years, Amilcar has not stopped questioning me. The documentary has become a romantic project, thought out and rethought, to which I have dedicated myself in total creative freedom.

In this biopic, I reclaim Cabral, his life and his thought as a way to explore the vulnerability of the human being and the need to be attentive. We are living through turbulent years, in which intolerance proliferates in Europe and beyond. Today, Cabral’s life reminds us that the rights of social justice acquired by our civilization are not eternal, but must be reconquered with each generation and that there is no greater danger than oblivion.

A luta sempre continua…