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
The Company of Strangers
In this Canadian gem, seven elderly women find themselves stranded when their bus breaks down in the wilderness. With only their wits, memories and some roasted frogs' legs to sustain them, this remarkable group of strangers share their life stories.
Madonna: Truth or Dare
A year in the life of Madonna at the height of her fame, touring Blonde Ambition through 1990. There's concert footage, but the movie is also daringly truthful about life behind the scenes — not that Madonna is every really off-stage.
The Leopard
Lampedusa's elegiac account of a 19th century Sicilian aristocrat, Prince Salina, fading into history is one of the pinnacles of Italian cinema, an epic which influenced the tempo and gravitas of The Godfather, Age of Innocence and The Deer Hunter.
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.