Mistida, by Falcão Nhaga, selected at La Cinéf - Cannes Film Festival [17/05/2022]

Mistida, a short film directed by the twenty-one-year-old filmmaker Falcão Nhaga and produced by the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema, was selected by La Cinef, the competitive section of the Cannes Festival dedicated to school films from around the world and new voices from independent cinema. It is the second time in two decades that Portugal has been represented in La Cinef (formerly Cinéfondation) and the second time in the competition's history that an entirely Portuguese production has been selected, after António Ferreira's selections with the Portuguese-German short Respirar (Debaixo d'Água); from the film A Viagem de Simão Cayatte made as part of his studies in the USA and the selection of Corte de Afonso and Bernardo Rapazote, in 2020.

NOTE OF INTENT:
I desperately aspire to tell this special story, a beautiful specificity in the geography of my being: born in this land, I am a descendant of immigrant parents. I am aware of their dwindling days and of the threshold of poverty, while the indignity of their circumstances, for the passing years of their life, had meant the dispossession of hope, of returning to the well-loved land, envisioning a future in the light of decency, to see us around love and family. The weight of immigration, indigence, sacrifice, longing and being black is mounting. But love in Mistida is not muted by grief. Due to the heredity of pain, it is the children who come to the parents, taking with them the same disadvantageous origin, but also the resplendent dreams of the past that still flicker in them - while this past has been grievous until then, finally, the future can become lighter.
I shared this story, my heart and my spirit with my colleagues at Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema. I believe that the affection and passion they devoted to the film was what made it complete - either because of the natural conversations between mother and son, which took shape in the editing; for the cinematography that guides us through the neighborhoods with such grace; or by the sound environment of the children and the ball game, which accompany these moments with a light nostalgic tinge, as necessary as everything else. It is indescribable that from our initial inexperience and willingness, we finally came to the realization of our last school project.