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EURO KIDS - SCREENINGS 2004/2005

 
 
 
 
 
 

HOLLOW CITY

Original Title

Na cidade vazia

Director

Maria Joao Ganga

Genre

Drama

Country of origin

Angola / Portugal

Language spoken

Portuguese

Year of production

2004

Production

Animatógrafo II

Awards

Paris Film Festival 2004 (Special Jury Prize)

Suggested by

Alessandra Speciale – Artistic Director of the African Film Festival (Italy)

 

SYNOPSIS

A group of children, fleeing the war, is taken to Luanda accompanied by a nun. When they reach the aeroplane, 12-year-old N'Dala decides to leave the group and to reconnoitre the city. The nun then starts her unceasing quest for the missing boy. N'Dala, only carrying a textile bag and a doll made of wire, walks through the busy streets filled with people and traffic. Later he finds the tranquility of the island off the coast, where he meets the old fisherman Antonio, with whom he becomes friends. Not much later, he meets the lively, whimsical Zé, who is a little older than he is. N'Dala starts to experience the city and its inhabitants as increasingly forbidding and he would most like to return to the countryside from whence he came. Then he meets Joka, a fringe figure who persuades him to help with a robbery in exchange for money. With this film, Maria Joao Ganga wanted to provide a realistic sketch of the bitter political situation in Angola. One of her most important motivations for making In the Empty City was to provide a picture of an African city without awakening feelings of a patronising sympathy or associations with the sensationalism of war.