DVD O Heroi - Zézé Gamboa

© 2006. David & Golias

At the age of 15, Vitorio was recruited by force in the Angolese army. After having fought for twenty years, he is demobilized. During one of his last missions, he stepped on a antipersonel mine and had to suffer a leg amputation. Having waited for months, he finally receives a prosthesis.
Alone and pennyless, he wanders on the streets of Luanda, in the search of a job. One night, while sleeping on the street, his prosthesis is stolen... as well as Vitorio's dreams of integration.

The Hero won the Grand prize of the World Dramatic Competition at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

Directed by: Zézé Gamboa

Cast: Oumar Makéna Diop, Milton Coelho (Santo), Patricia Bull, Neusa Borges, Maria Ceiça, Raul Rosário

Image: Mario Masini
Editing: Anna Ruiz
Production Designer : Lucha D'Orey
Music: David Linx, Diedrik Wissels
Producer: Fernando Vendrell
Production: Les Films de l'Après Midi (France), Gamboa & Gamboa (Angola), David & Golias (Portugal)

"Bolstered by a talented cast led by the magnificent Milton Coelho, Gamboa deftly weaves together these stories in a way that creates a nuanced portrait of contemporary life in Angola." BBC

The Hero is the story of Angola, a nation torn apart by forty years of uninterrupted war. It is also the story of a city, Luanda, like so many in the developing world, trying to absorb the millions of people displaced by civil strife and global economic change.

The central character of the film, the hero of the title, is Vitório, who was pressed into service at the age of fifteen, and is now, twenty years later, desperately trying to rebuild his life and find love. Vitório has a prosthetic leg replacing the one he lost after stepping on a landmine just months before the end of the war. His struggle to piece back together his life echoes the struggle of the country at large.

all films by Zézé Gamboa >