Resonance Spiral

Summary

"Nothing falls from the sky apart from rain", says Amílcar Cabral in a tape recording from 1970. The women of the Satna Fai agricultural workers’ collective listen to this historical document stemming from the politician, poet and theoretician; they rest as Cabral demands equality between the sexes, which he sees as essential for shared progress. The setting is the Abotcha building in Malafo, a traditional Balanta village in Guinea-Bissau, which has housed the Mediateca Onshore since 2023.

Together with filmmaker Sana na N’Hada and others, since 2011 director Filipa César has been working on reconstructing the audiovisual memory of the country’s liberation movement and making it accessible to the public; artist Marinho de Pina has been involved since 2017. In Resonance Spiral, César and de Pina document the construction of the Abotcha and the agro-poetic practices that take place there, showing dialogues between archive, performing arts and community. At the same time, they grapple with their own position, sharing insights, despairs – and the mud of the mangroves.

Source: 74. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)