I ONLY REST IN THE STORM
(director/writer: Pedro Pinho; cinematographer: Ivo Lopes Araujo; editors: Rita M. Pestama, Akermen Karen, Claudia Rita Oliveira; music: Carpotxa Mazulu; cast: Sergio Coragem (Sergio), Jonathan Guilherme (Gui), Cleo Diára (Diara); Runtime: 211; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Tiago Hespanha, Filipa Reis, Pedro Pinho; Still Moving; 2025-France/Portugal/Brazil/Romania-in Portuguese with English subtitles)
“An intelligent, tense and meandering political and environmental drama about global imbalances confronting a third world nation in a state of flux.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
An intelligent, tense and meandering political and environmental drama about global imbalances confronting a third world nation in a state of flux. It’s directed and written by Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Pinho (“The Nothing Factory”/”Trading Cities”), with 10 other screenwriters. The slow burn film is packed with ideas, controversial opinions, and tackles the ticklish truths about the relationship between neo-colonialism and international NGOs.
Sergio (Sérgio Coragem) is an emotionally unstable, deeply flawed, but well-meaning white man, an environmental engineer from Portugal. He is sent by an unnamed NGO to assess the environmental impact on a road project that cuts across the country between the desert and the city of Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, in West Africa. The project is being sponsored by a wealthy Portuguese businessman, and is welcomed by some progressive citizens as a boost to the economy but opposed by some traditionalists who say they don’t need the road. Sergio is replacing his predecessor who mysteriously vanished before he could file his report.
In a nightclub in the capital city, Sergio meets and develops a complex relationship with the local wig-wearing blonde extrovert bar owner and his love interest Diara (Cleo Diára) and the ambitious mixed-race Brazilian gay man Gui (Jonathan Guilherme). He also meets others in the expat community who fill him in on what’s going down in the impoverished city, as they voice their concerns about the drinking water, the local services like trash removal and their country’s dependence on foreign investments.
The characters bravely speak out about the disappointments over the city’s hypocrisy while at the same time it promotes progressive programs. The film plays like a docudrama, as it uncovers the on-going troubling issues in the city’s post-colonial period of corruption and its identity crisis.
At over 3 hours, with a slow pace, a bloated narrative, and with a subject matter limited to only interest a certain politically aware audience, the film even if thoughtful, aesthetic and provocative will not reach a wide audience. How much you like it depends on your interest in the former colonial country’s history and how it’s currently pressured by the World Bank and exploited by Brazilian and Chinese investors.
REVIEWED ON 5/28/2025 GRADE: B
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