Next Film/Video | Classics | Series & Festivals

Mortu Nega

(Those Whom Death Refused, Flora Gomes, 1988) 

New Restoration

A still of a Black woman and a Black man. The Black woman smiles. The Black man wears a serious expression.

Flora Gomes’s debut feature depicts the guerrilla war that brought independence to Guinea-Bissau from Portuguese colonial rule.

Mortu Nega is a gripping account of the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence, a guerrilla war in the 1970s that led to the end of Portugal’s decades-long colonial grip on Guinea-Bissau. Diminga (Bia Gomes) is a guerrilla fighter who joins the conflict to be closer to her husband. Gomes captures the intensity of guerrilla warfare and the harrowing lives of the soldiers fighting for their independence while also raising questions about the future of the country once the war ends. In Creole and Portuguese with English subtitles. (96 mins., 4K DCP)

See the entire Cinema Revival lineup.

IMAGE CAPTION
Mortu Nega, courtesy of Janus Films.

Program Support

Restored in 2025 by the Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in collaboration with Flora Gomes. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. Special thanks to Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst. Restored in 4K from the original Super16mm camera negative and the 35mm magnetic sound, stored at LTC Laboratories. Grading supervised by Dominique Gentil and Flora Gomes.

SUPPORT FOR FILM PROGRAMS PROVIDED BY

Rohauer Collection Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY

Greater Columbus Arts Council

The Wexner Family

Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts

CampusParc

The Columbus Foundation

Every Page Foundation

Mellon Foundation

Axium Packaging

Nationwide Foundation

Michael and Anita Goldberg

Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease, LLP

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY

Joyce Shenk

Rebecca Perry and Ben Towle

Lachelle Thigpen

Close

Next Film/Video

Mortu Nega