Sambizanga (film)

This article is about the 1972 film. For the municipality, see Sambizanga, Angola.

Sambizanga
Directed by	Sarah Maldoror
Screenplay by	Mário Pinto de Andrade Maurice Pons Sarah Maldoror
Based on	A vida verdadeira de Domingos Xavier by José Luandino Vieira
Starring	Domingos de Oliveira Elisa Andrade
Cinematography	Claude Agostini
Edited by	George Klotz
Production company	Isabelle Films
Distributed by	New Yorker Films (United States) Animatógrafo (Portugal)
Release date	19 October 1972 (1972-October-19) (Portugal)
Running time	97 minutes
Countries	Portuguese Angola France People's Republic of the Congo
Languages	Portuguese Kimbundu Lingala

Sambizanga is a 1972 film directed by Sarah Maldoror and written by Maldoror, Mário Pinto de Andrade, and Maurice Pons, based on the 1961 novella The Real Life of Domingos Xavier by José Luandino Vieira. Set in 1961 during the onset of the Angolan War of Independence, it follows the struggles of Angolan militants involved with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), an anti-colonial political movement. Maldoror co-wrote the screenplay with her husband, who was a leader within the MPLA. Sambizanga was the first feature film produced in Angola and by any Lusophone African country. Maldoror was the first woman to make a feature film in Africa.^[1]

Plot

The film is set partly in the titular Sambizanga, a working-class neighbourhood in Luanda where a Portuguese prison was located in which many Angolan anti-colonial militants were tortured and killed. On 4 February 1961, the prison was attacked by MPLA forces.^[2]

Domingos Xavier, a revolutionary, is arrested by colonial officials. He is taken to the prison, where he is threatened with torture if he does not reveal the names of his fellow activists. During his imprisonment, Domingos' wife, Maria, goes from prison to prison, trying to find out what has happened to her husband and unaware of his involvement in the anti-colonial struggle. While she is searching, Domingos dies in the prison as a result of being beaten during interrogation.^[3][4]

Cast

• Domingos de Oliveira as Domingos Xavier
• Elisa Andrade as Maria
• Jean M'Vondo as Petelo
• Dino Abelino as Zito
• Benoît Moutsila as Chico
• Talagongo as Miguel
• Lopes Rodrigues as Mussunda
• Henriette Meya as Bebiana
• Manuel Videira as the PIDE agent
• Ana Wilson as the narrator

Production

Sambizanga was based on a 1961 novella by José Luandino Vieira, a white Angolan writer born in Portugal who had served a 11-year prison sentence for his work in the anti-colonial struggle in Angola.^[4]

Sambizanga was shot on location in the People's Republic of the Congo over a seven-week period.^[5]

Many of the actors in the film were non-professionals who were involved in African anti-colonial movements such as the MPLA and the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC).^[6] Domingos de Oliveira, who played Domingos Xavier, was an Angolan exile living in the Congo; while Maria was played by Elisa Andrade, an economist from Cape Verde.^[5]

Release and reception

Sambizanga was released in Portugal on 19 October 1974 following the Carnation Revolution and was also released in Angola the same year following its independence.^[7]

Writing in The Village Voice, Michael Kerbel compared Sambizanga to Soviet Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 film Battleship Potemkin in terms of its political significance.^[8] Writing in 2012 for The Guardian, Mark Cousins named the film as one of the ten best African films, describing it "as bold, as well-lit as Caravaggio paintings".^[9]

Nwachukwu Frank Ukadike praised Sambizanga for its feminist themes, writing that it "gives female subjectivity special attention, as it pertains to revolutionary struggles... the feminist aspect of the film becomes apparent... as it is aimed at giving credibility to women's participation".^[10]

Maldoror won the Tanit d'Or at the 1972 Carthage Film Festival. Sambizanga also screened at the 1973 Berlin International Film Festival.^[11]

In 2021, Sambizanga was restored by the African Film Heritage Project, an initiative created by the Film Foundation's World Cinema Project, the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers, and UNESCO, with the blessing of Maldoror's family.^[12]

References

1. Stewart, Katy (11 July 2018). "A closer look at Angolan cinema". Cinema Escapist. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
2. Dembrow, Michael (1987). "Sambizanga and Sarah Maldoror". Spot. Archived from the original on 15 March 2012. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
3. Breitmeyer, Alice (4 June 2014). "To what extent was Sarah Maldoror's Sambizanga shaped by the ideology of MPLA?". Buala. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
4. ""Sambizanga" de Sarah Maldoror". Cases Rebelles (in French). July 2013. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
5. Gugler, Josef (2003). African film: re-imagining a continent. Martlesham: Boydell & Brewer. pp. 55–56. ISBN 978-0852555620.
6. Frank Ukadike, Nwachukwu (1994). Black African cinema. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 233–235. ISBN 9780520912366.
7. Sandhu, Sukhdev (31 May 2019). "The hour of liberation". 4 Columns. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
8. Kerbel, Michael (6 December 1973). "Angola: brutality & betrayal". Village Voice.
9. Cousins, Mark (3 September 2012). "African cinema: ten of the best". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
10. Frank Udadike, N. (1994). "Reclaiming images of women in films from Africa and the black diaspora". Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. 15 (1): 102–122. doi:10.2307/3346615. JSTOR 3346615 – via JSTOR.
11. "Sambizanga - Awards". IMDb. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
12. "Sambizanga (1972) - projection et discussion". Palais de Tokyo (in French). Retrieved 23 April 2023.

External links

• Sambizanga at IMDb
• Podcast about Sambizanga on SOAS Radio
• Interview with Sarah Maldoror (1997)
• Review of Sambizanga on World Cinema Directory^[usurped]
• Sambizanga and Sarah Maldoror, article by Michael Dembrow