I Only Rest in the Storm

Portuguese environmental engineer Sérgio travels to the former Portuguese colony of Guinea-Bissau to conduct an impact study for a road construction project. While coping with the heat and isolation as best he can, he meets Diára and Guillerhme, two charismatic locals who are trying to take control of their own destiny and resist oppressive socioeconomic patterns. But their ambivalent relationship is fraught with tension as Sergio confronts the capitalist and neocolonial dynamics that permeate his mission, and all three question their own identities and roles in a globalized world. The camera does not anticipate, but rather follows the gestures of its protagonists and their body rhythms, surrendering to the uncertainty of the outcome. Life unfolds spontaneously and branches into numerous offshoots, following a vital and all-pervading choreography of chaos. Negotiations with the actors (Sérgio Coragem, Jonathan Guilherme, and Cleo Diára – who won the Best Actress award in the Un Certain Regard section at last year’s Cannes) are woven into the film. Their presence, contradictions and rejections shape scenes, dialogues and atmosphere. As the director Pinho himself admits, the film would not exist without their courage, discomfort and broad-mindedness.

The dissonance between the European fantasy and the historical, political and symbolic consequences of its presence in the global South gets its expression in the shock of their encounter, which often takes on violent dimensions and reveals deep, persisting asymmetries, that take on new forms, but follow the well-known paternalistic and exploitative logic. Sérgio is indeed aware of the moral issues of the undertaking in which he participates, and finds relief in the vibrant social life of the West African urban scene, as well as in intense sexual encounters with both women and men. Seemingly benign, he yearns for belonging and is careful not to overstep the boundaries set by his newfound friends; but despite his constant self-examination, he fails to leave his own comfort zone and shake off the comfortable and privileged position of a passive Western observer. Opinions are divided on whether the construction of the road will be an economic stimulus or an ecological catastrophe; the dilemma is further complicated by poverty, corruption and violence, as hinted at by the mysterious disappearance of Sérgio’s predecessor, which the smooth local businessman Horatio, an apologist of progress, does not want to discuss. The many shades of gray are overshadowed by the cacophonous heavenly atmosphere of Guinea-Bissau, but Pinho never loses sight of the white-skinned hypocrisy. Scruples are a luxury, as Diara reminds Sérgio when he rejects Horatio’s immoral offer of 150,000 euros.

As he drives through the sand blizzard like one of Antonioni’s existential wanderers, Sérgio seems to avoid thinking about the power dynamics unfolding around him. Being “here and now”, present in the moment, is his superpower – as he tells Gui, the sublime Brazilian drag queen he hangs out with. Gui’s gender-fluid gang, which gathers in a bar run by the charming con artist Diára, is a racial and sexual utopia ready to accept anyone, including this white expat. But as Gui intuits, Sérgio’s bisexuality reflects something casual, even opportunistic, about him. He simultaneously lives in a privileged expatriate enclave and on the pulsating and chaotic African streets, without really belonging to either. However, Sérgio’s non-aligned status makes him the perfect medium for listening in on neo-colonial relations in all segments of society and questioning his own tacit and denied white savior complex. The film does not offer easy answers to complex economic and racial questions, but it dares to pose them and contemplate them in a meandering and hypnotic film form in which the only certainty is that personal relationships always take on political dimensions and are permeated by (often unspoken) hierarchies of power.