North American Premiere
Angola, 1995: At the height of the civil war, Nayola scours combat zones and treks through perilous terrain in search of her husband, who has gone missing in battle. Sixteen years later, in the aftermath of the war, Nayola’s daughter Yara has grown up parentless. Now a politically conscious rap artist striving for social change, she circulates her own music illegally, in defiance of censorship. Wary of the police’s raids, her grandmother, Lelena, does her best to keep Yara hidden. One night, an encounter with a masked intruder pulls their family history—and the scars of war—into stark relief.
Featuring outstanding vocal performances from spoken word artist Elis Rita and rap artist Meduza, Nayola deftly incorporates a variety of stunning animation styles—ranging from realistic to impressionistic—to shift fluidly between dreams, reality, past, and present.
Like the striking and vivid graphic style of the animation, Nayola is bold and thrilling storytelling which combines its forceful message about the legacy of living through war with an almost mythic quality.”—Wendy Ide, Screen Daily
Elisângela Rita, Vitória Soares, Feliciana Délcia Guia, Marinela Furtado, José Adelino Barceló de Carvalho
Portugal/Belgium/France/Netherlands
2022
In Portuguese and Kimbundu with English subtitles
Violence; coarse language
Open to youth!
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Love
This warm, thoughtful piece offers shrewd comic observations on modern dating as it trains a quizzical eye on the trysts of a female doctor, Marianne (Andrea Bræin Hovig), and her colleague, a gay male nurse, Tor (Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen).
Sex
Two chimney sweeps living in heterosexual marriages find their views on sexuality and gender challenged by a series of unexpected events. In a set of sharply scripted conversations, both men confront heretofore unexplored aspects of their identity.
3 Faces
Iranian filmmaker Panahi and actress Behnaz Jafari, both playing themselves, receive a video in which a distraught teenaged girl, whose acting dreams have been quashed appears to kill herself. Panahi and Jafari decide to investigate...
Dreams
The third installment in the Sex/Dreams/Love trilogy is another rich, absorbing tale. 17-year-old Johanne writes a confessional about her flirtation with a (female) teacher. But the writing is too good to stay private...
Transit
Trust the director of Phoenix and Barbara to re-imagine a WWII romantic intrigue into something unsettlingly contemporary. With occupying forces closing in, a German refugee (Franz Rogowski) assumes a dead writer's identity and flees to Marseille.
Credits
Producer
Ana Carina Estróia, Geert Van Goethem, Linda Stercks, Camille Raulo, Jean-François Bigot, Arnoud Rijken, Michiel Snijders, Serge Kestemont, Tomás Oom Martins, Jorge António
Screenwriter
Virgílio Almeida
ANIM
Elie Klimis, Hugo Santos, João Monteiro, João Silva, Johanna Bessiere, Lisandro Schurjin, Luís Vital, Patrick Raats
Editor
Job Ter Burg, Ewin Ryckaert
Original Music
Alex Debicki
Art Director
José Miguel Ribeiro
Director
José Miguel Ribeiro
José Miguel Ribeiro graduated in Visual Arts at the Fine Art School in Lisbon and did further studies in drawing and animation. His film O Banquete da Rainha (1994) was awarded at the Cinanima International Animation Festival. He directed A Suspeita (2000), which won the Cartoon D’Or at the Cartoon Forum and more than 25 international awards. In 2004, he directed the series Home Things, where the protagonists are house objects: the mop, the toothbrush, the glasses, the vacuum cleaner, among others. The series was honoured with several international awards.