SAMBIZANGA
Angola, France| 1972 | 98 min | col. | o.v. Portuguese, Lingala, Kimbundu
Sambizanga is the beating heart of Sarah Maldoror’s filmmaking. Set in Angola in 1961, the film follows Maria, a young woman in search of her husband, who was arrested by the Portuguese for revolutionary activities. It is a journey through the injustices of colonial domination and the dignity of those who resist. Based on a short story by José Luandino Vieira and co-written with Mário Pinto de Andrade, the film blends realism and poetry, memory and militancy. Filmed with an almost documentary touch that never loses its lyricism, it is the first African feature film directed by a woman and a crucial work, which depicts the revolution through the eyes of a woman, without rhetoric but with ferocious grace. A necessary film which is still burning. (L.F.)
Local Time
- Timezone: America/New_York
- Date: 03 Nov 2025
- Time: 12:00
Location
- Cinema La Compagnia - Via Camillo Cavour, 50/R, 50121 Florence
Organizer
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Sarah Maldoror
Sarah Maldoror (1929–2020) was a French director, Pan-African by adoption, revolutionary voice, and the first female filmmaker in African cinema. She chronicled the wars of liberation in the former Portuguese colonies, with a particular focus on the role of women in the struggle. After founding the first theater company of black actors in France, Les Griots, in 1956, she was assistant director to Pontecorvo for The Battle of Algiers in 1966, and then to William Klein for Festival panafricain d'Alger (1969). Her first feature film was also the first ever made by an African female director: Sambizanga (1972). Her other major works include her debut short film Monangambééé (1969), Aimé Césaire, un homme une terre (1976), Aimé Césaire – Le Masque des mots (1987), Portrait de Assia Djebar (1989), and Léon G. Damas (1994).
