This enrapturing coming-of-age drama — the first in our June installment of the on-going African Cinema Now! series curated by Akojo Film Collective — presents a dynamic and singular portrait of Cape Verde. Young Nana (played at different ages by Sanaya Andrade and Daílma Mendes) is on the cusp of self-discovery amid the weight of her mother’s absence. But when her mother eventually returns, the lyricism and magic of Nana’s childhood take a different shape.
Winner of the Best Emerging Director Award and a Special Mention in the First Feature competition at the 2024 Locarno Film Festival
African Cinema Now! runs on Tuesdays and Saturdays through the second half of June.
Hanami is a Japanese concept that we are told is ineffable — in the way the enjoyment of abstract things can be. In this case, the enjoyment refers to the falling of cherry blossoms, but maybe just maybe it refers to Fernandes’s film, filled as it is with beautiful images and turns that do not readily give out meaning.
Oris Aigbokhaevbolo, The Film Verdict
Denise Fernandes
Sanaya Andrade, Daílma Mendes, Alice da Luz, Nha Nha Rodrigues, João Galinha, Yuta Nakano
Switzerland/Portugal/Cape Verde
2024
In Cape Verdean Creole, English, Japanese, and French with English subtitles
Best Emerging Director, Locarno Film Festival
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Credits
Producer
Eugenia Mumenthaler, David Epiney, Luís Urbano, Sandro Aguilar
Screenwriter
Denise Fernandes, Telmo Churro
Cinematography
Alana Mejía Gonzalez
Editor
Selin Dettwiler
Production Design
Mathé
Original Music
Rahel Zimmermann
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