Zézé Gamboa's sardonic historical drama follows a good-hearted, apolitical con man who, on the eve of Angolan independence in the mid-1970s, pulls off a massive swindle at the expense of the Portuguese colonial administration — and soon after finds himself hailed as a hero of the national liberation struggle.
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Reviews
This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.
A good and simple tale about the life of a young opportunist Angolan swindler and womanizer. A well told tale of a nice young African negro man good at seducing girls and women and swindling to get money to buy good cars and frequent nice places. He seduces white women stepping aside the racism in force both in Portugal and its colony of Angola. He began by studying engineering in Lisbon but has to go back to Angola for he had trouble with the political police of the fascist regime. In Angola he leads the same magnificent life with the help of his father who is a rich man and uses the money he gets by fraud in the office where he works to help friends that fight for the liberation of Angola from the Portuguese colonialism. This puts him in trouble again. He is in jail when the Democratic Revolution in Portugal happens in April 1974 and is then freed. This is a well told tale and pleasant to watch.
A playful story with nostalgic tribute to the beauties of a time past - the 1960s. At the same time it educates about the oppression and revolutionary mood in Portugal and its colonies of that time. The plot follows black Angolan playboy's quest in good life in the both fixed and fluid hierarchies of colonial life. It paints a non-ideological picture where black Angolans and Portuguese may be friends, may get laid or even be comrades in the dream for independence, at the same time as colonial racism is widespread. The revolution is not perfect either...All this is portrayed in very unassuming plot, as the protagonist's main aim is to take the most from the pleasures of youth while avoiding politics but that is hardly possible and makes for a constant stream of unexpended developments. A very nice and well done film!
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