Filmmaker-griot coming from the theater, it was with a camera, while the war in Vietnam occupied everyone's minds, that Sarah Maldoror gave visibility to the African wars of decolonization: Angola, Guinea Bissau, French Guinea, Cape Verde... Her short film Monangambée addresses the torture by the Portuguese army of a sympathizer of the Angolan resistance. At the end of editing, Sarah Maldoror approached the members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago during a Parisian concert and offered to add sound to her film. The next day they watched the film, were convinced and recorded their first soundtrack for free as evidence of African-American solidarity. Shot in Algiers, Monangambée is a film about torture and, more broadly, about the incomprehension between the colonized and the colonizers. It is based on a novel by the Angolan writer Luandino Vieira, then imprisoned by the Portuguese colonial power.
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Cast
9 people
Elisa Andrade
Also in
Sambizanga
Carlos Pestana
Sarah Maldoror
Also in
And the Dogs Were Silent
Voisins, voisines
Mário de Andrade
Also in
Acaba de Chegar ao Brasil o Bello Poeta Francez Blaise Cendrars
Mário de Andrade: first etnographic films
Mohamed Zinet
Known for
The Common Man
The Kick of Sirocco
Serge Michel
Abdelkader Adel
Mário Pinto de Andrade
Luandino Vieira
Sarah Maldoror Director · Serge Michel Writer Mário Pinto de Andrade Writer
United States release December 20, 2020 · Produced in Angola, Algeria · Original title Monangambé
Production
Angola · Algeria
Produced in
Languages
Original title
Monangambé
Original language
French
Spoken on screen
French
Release dates
Angola · January 1, 1968
Theatrical · Source: MUBI
United States · December 20, 2020
Museum of Modern Art, New York City internet
France
May 13, 1971 · Premiere · Cannes Film Festival
Germany
June 28, 1971 · Premiere · Berlin International Film Festival
Italy
August 1, 2020 · Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna
Portugal
August 27, 2020 · IndieLisboa
Taiwan
October 18, 2026 · Premiere · Women Make Waves International Film Festival (4K Restoration)
More from Sarah Maldoror
Other films they directed, best known first.
Some details come from TheTVDB.