frame[o]ut – UNGEHORSAM
Open-air film festival

Fri 05.09., 20.30h, Courtyard 8, free entry
indoor backup venue: Arena21 

film: SAMBIZANGA
FR, AO, CD 1972 | D:Sarah Maldoror | featue film | 102 min. | original version with subtitles

In its narrative of Angola's struggle against Portuguese colonial rule, the film looks back to the year 1961. The title refers to the name of the neighborhood in Luanda where the uprising against colonial rule began. When the revolutionary Domingos Xavier is arrested there by the secret police, his wife Maria sets off in search of him. Initially unaware of his previous political activities, Maria's awareness of the systematic oppression of the occupying forces grows with every encounter. With her journey, which she undertakes accompanied by her child, Sambizanga sheds light on the role of women in anti-colonial resistance.
Today, Maldoror is considered the first female director to shoot a feature-length film in sub-Saharan Africa - however, due to the ongoing fighting, she made her debut in neighboring Congo. Many of the non-professional actors were activists, as was Maldoror's partner and co-writer Mário Pinto de Andrade himself, who was part of the liberation movement “Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola”. Maldoror also dedicated her subsequent films to the visualization of underrepresented stories - often, as in her first film, in a combination of documentary and poetic means.

Sarah Maldoror (1929-2020) was a French film director. She made her feature film debut in 1970 with DES FUSILS POUR BANTA, followed by four more feature films. She also made several short films and documentaries until the end of the 1990s. Maldoror was the first woman to direct a feature film in Africa.

Film still © Cineteca di Bologna

In cooperation and co-production with MuseumsQuartier Wien