AS CIDADES E AS TROCAS

Welcome to Cape Verde. The film opens with workers dismantling huge cargo ships, and then, in what promises to be a long-distance journey, it moves on to a farmer on his land, village workers getting ready for the carnival, tourists hovering between the swimming pool and the theme evening —local colour included—, the sand trade… Is it such a remote country? On the world map, it sure is, but not really, judging by what happens on screen. It all forms a whole, which seems familiar and evocative of a world — our world.
What slowly appears to be the project here is to demonstrate the loss of a certain use of the world, here and there —as shown by the tourists— while the landscapes we live in are changing. From the carnival to its ludicrous enactment, from the shared music to its calibrated reverse side, the switch is that of a community’s life turned into a mass activity. Quietly, precisely, the camera takes the time to make wide sequences, flowing freely, embracing the movements of groups and skylines, going from one place to the next and back again. It pays attention to spaces, landscapes, collective situations, gatherings for work or play, all the while slowly shaping an epic tale. Without resignation or easy resort to showy or dramatic effects, as suggested by the painted landscapes covering the walls of a modest café. Those images whose beauty is sometimes fraught with contradictions, are like so many signs of a possible reappropriation, however modest. (NF) Pedro Pinho Luísa Homem