The film will have special screenings in Cape Verde for the non-professional actors who participated in the project, as well as the local community, given the absence of commercial cinema in the country, the organizers have announced.
The special screenings are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, April 12 and 13.
The showings will take place on the island of Fogo, where the film was entirely shot, at Casa das Bandeiras, and in Praia, at the Portuguese Cultural Center.
A session will also be held soon in São Vicente as part of the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of Cape Verde’s independence.
“The main motivation behind this initiative is to share the film with the people who made it with us. It is essentially a gesture to give back to the place and the people who contributed to its creation. Furthermore, since the director Denise Fernandes is also Cape Verdean, we held a moral obligation from the beginning of this project to bring it to Cape Verde,” commented the organizers.
‘Hanami’ is co-produced by Batalha Centro de Cinema and supported by the Portuguese Embassy in Cape Verde, as well as Camões – Institute for Cooperation and Language.
“Most of the fictional characters were played by local people, who were rehearsed by the Portuguese production team during preparation,” they explained.
The feature film recounts the story of Nana, a girl living on a remote volcanic island where everyone dreams of leaving, except her.
Abandoned by her mother, Nia, and plagued by mysterious fevers, Nana is taken to the foot of a volcano for treatment, plunging into a realm between dream and reality.
The film was awarded the Ingmar Bergman prize at the Gothenburg Film Festival in Sweden in February.
In 2024, it received the revelation prize at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland.
Since then, it has been selected for various festivals and has won other awards, including in Chicago (USA) and São Paulo (Brazil).
Prior to ‘Hanami,’ Denise Fernandes directed short films ‘Nha Mila’ (2020), ‘Idyllium’ (2013), ‘Pan sin mermelada’ (2012), and ‘Una notte’ (2011).
Denise Fernandes, born in Lisbon to Cape Verdean parents and raised in Switzerland, explores the stages and challenges of a girl’s growth from gestation to adolescence in ‘Hanami.’
‘Hanami’ will premiere in Swiss cinemas, the co-producing country, on March 19, and will be released in Portuguese cinemas on May 15.
