Rating: 4/5
The film follows Ndomé and Ngando in the conflict between love and the tradition of marriage. Because Ngando is poor, Ndomé’s family will not let her marry him, even after she becomes pregnant. So, on the day of the traditional feast, Ngando kidnaps his child.
The filmmakers drench the film in longing and memory, embedded in and resistant to ritual and ceremony. Ngando is heartbroken and disconnected. He longs to find a way back to his love and his child.
It looks at the consequences of the patriarchal constructs of marriage and dowry, letting the story and its outcome perform the critique.
While I don’t understand everything that’s going on in this movie, I do understand the faces, and the movie fills the screen with emotionally complex faces that do so much of the storytelling.
This movie feels like a historical document as much as a human drama.