Acto dos feitos da Guiné
(Acto dos feitos da Guiné)

Starting from what looks like a theatre set, Fernando Matos Silva undertakes a sort of temporal panning of Portugal’s presence in Africa. On the stage he sets, a picturesque and parody-like procession of historical figures shows a 15th-century Portuguese navigator, fascist leaders from this Europe of ours, such as Hitler and Mussolini, and a guerrillero from the wars of liberation. In front of the camera, each of them performs his act, listing his victories and grand achievements. Filmed in colour, this sham theatre is interspersed with documentary images shot in black and white taken from the filmmaker’s experience in Guinea-Bissau when he served in Portuguese army’s film department. They reveal to us in a garish light the political determinants of an epoch – so much so that they even anticipate the reality of future traumas and accusations regarding the “acts” perpetrated at the time. AR & JB