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O Herói (The Hero) and the Post-Colonial Angolan State




Author(s)

Bonnie Wasserman

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2134/2016.03.004

This article examines how post-war Angola is depicted in the film O Herói (The Hero). With a well-known international cast and funding from a number of foreign sources, this movie heralds in a new era for Lusophone African cinema. Director Zezé Gamboa highlights the difficult reality faced by those living in Luanda, the capital of Angola, with scenes of water and electricity shortages, unemployment, and gang violence. He also touches upon some of the themes from the work of famed Senegalese author and director Ousmane Sembène such as corruption and neo-colonialism. One of the very few Angolan movies that has been shown at international festivals and theaters, O Herói (2004) not only offers a harsh portrayal of living conditions after 40 years of conflict, especially that of the treatment of disabled veterans injured in the mine fields that still are found throughout the country, but also creates a sense of hope for families displaced by war to be reunited or at least form new bonds in the future.

Angola, cinema, civil war, post-colonialism, post-war reconstruction, Neo-colonialism, Africa

Wasserman, B. (2016). O Herói (The Hero) and the Post-Colonial Angolan State. International Relations and Diplomacy, 4(3), 202-207.