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Science Fiction Films from Africa and Latin America (1st Session)

Portuguese subtitles, M/16

19 Jun 2015 - 22:00

Open Air Auditorium

Admission 3 €

Usoni, Cherie Lindiwe (Kenya), 2013 / Control (Spoek Mathambo), Pieter Hugo, Michael Cleary (South Africa), 2011 / Chigger Ale, The Mysterious Fanta Ananas (Spain and Ethiopia), 2013 / Crumbs, Miguel Llansó (Spain, Ethiopia, Finland), 2015.

This year, in the Open Air Auditorium, viewers will be able to watch a film series that has rarely been screened in Portugal. The series is, in a way, a continuation of a debate on Science Fiction in Africa and Latin America held last May as part of the Observatory on Other Literatures. Classic and contemporary sci-fi films will be screened from various African and Latin American countries, where a tradition of this genre exists that is completely unknown in Portugal. While these short, mid-length and feature-length films follow certain sci-fi conventions, their themes, the kinds of characters portrayed and the scenarios in which they take place are highly unique. This series is guaranteed to be a true cinematic revelation.

Crumbs

Crumbs, Miguel Llansó (Spain and Ethiopia, 2015)

Usoni, Cherie Lindiwe (Kenya)

Science Fiction, 2013, 23’

After the great climate catastrophe of 2035, the seas are higher and more violent than ever before. A series of huge volcanic eruptions and massive earthquakes have shattered established life systems across the Northern hemisphere. All the world’s nuclear reactors melted down or were washed into the sea. For years the skies have been covered with dark clouds of radioactive smoke and ash, and the air, seas and fresh water lakes have become polluted. A super powerful organisation has globally the monopole of water and totally controls the world... Global, social and economic order and ordinary life has disintegrated completely. It’s every man and woman, for themselves. In an ironic reversal of fortune, now immigrants from the West risk their lives to travel over treacherous seas to Africa where the sun still shines, and there is life and hope.

 

Control (Spoek Mathambo), Pieter Hugo, Michael Cleary (South Africa)

music video, 2011, 4’

It is a darkwave township house cover of the Joy Division classic 'She's Lost Control'. For the music video, Spoek has collaborated with one of South Africa's most celebrated photographers, Pieter Hugo & cinematographer Michael Cleary. It explores the world of township cults, street preaches and teen gangs and was shot on location in a squatted train boarding house in Langa, Cape Town. The cast is mainly made up of the neighborhood kids who run their own dance troop, Happy Feet.

 

Chigger Ale, The Mysterious Fanta Ananas (Spain and Ethiopia)

Science Fiction, 2013, 11’

One night, a strange clone of Hitler comes to Fendika - a grassroots tavern in Addis Ababa...

 

Crumbs

Miguel Llansó (Spain, Ethiopia, Finland)

Science Fiction, 2015, 68’

Candy, a strange-looking scrap collector embarks on a surreal epic journey through the postapocalyptic Ethiopian landscape. There, he confronts himself, his fears and witches, Santa Claus and second generation Nazis. Tired of picking up the crumbs of gone-by civilizations, Candy dreams his life away when not living in a state of perpetual fear. When the spaceship in the sky begins to turn on and after a series of freak incidents, our miniature-sized hero discovers that what he had long believed is not what he expected.