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Sambizanga Movie Review

Sambizanga is a 1972 Angolan historical drama film directed by Sarah Maldodor. It is an uneven, but emotionally powerful movie.

A man is wrongfully arrested and tortured to death after he is suspected of being part of a revolutionary group. The plot is set during the Angolan War of Independence in 1961 and it’s a dual storyline following a man and his wife as they endure their torturous experience during this harsh period in the country’s history. Angola is a Lusophone country and one that was colonized by Portugal, so this movie deals with their war that will lead to independence.

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Having in mind that most African countries went through their independence movements in a similar period and many portrayed these major developments in cinema, Sambizanga ended up being far from original in terms of subject matter, though obviously the specificity of Angola made it more unique. The plot is pretty good, though far from great.

It is in the emotional intensity that the movie soared as both the male and the female perspective in war are shown here and both are heartbreaking. Women must contend not knowing anything that is going on and feeling powerless while men are brutally tortured. The main strength of this movie is that it shows both sides and this made it more of a spectacle, albeit of a tragic variety.

As for the acting performances, both are pretty good in an international cast of actors. The directing from Sarah Maldodor is also fantastic and she really managed to capture the spirit of the country and their culture and traditions and not just the horrible war sequences. There is a lot of singing and dancing in this movie for instance, though those scenes were overplayed.

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The first half is a bit more memorable than the second half, though both feature some truly powerful moments of strength and bravery in the face of the most terrible injustices imaginable. The cinematography and production design are solid, but watching the movie in a very bad, grainy quality was a problem for me and there needs to be a restored version of this movie sooner rather than later.