Nome

Amidst the bloody war between the Portuguese colonial army and the "maquis"—the guerrilla fighters of the PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde)—Nome leaves his village in 1969 to join the resistance. Years later, he returns a hero, yet his joy soon gives way to bitterness and cynicism. Film critic Adrian Martin observes: "Nome illuminates the hopeful, utopian dimension of African revolutionary movements and—with the wisdom of hindsight—grapples with the origins of corruption and betrayal, without succumbing to despair. A distinctive feature of Nome is its use of archival footage from the war era, shot at the time by director Sana Na N'Hada and his comrades. These images do far more than simply provide documentary authenticity; through their very fragility, the film transforms the materiality of the scratched, battered footage into a poetic language."