Un día más con vida

This week I’m going to realize a post in English to improve my skills in other languages. I’ve chosen a film called Another day of life, which is directed by Damian Nenow. The film recreates the war in Angola with cartoons and real interviews of people that lived those days.

In 1975 Portugal left his colony, Angola, starting then a fight between the FNLA (financed by the USA) and the MPLA (helped by the URSS). The film shows the reality of this conflict that started in the middle of the Cold War and didn’t finished until 2002.

The war is terrible, but it won’t have end until we understand that some imperialist countries have their own interests. Telling the story following a polish reporter, which name was Ryszard Kapuscinski, we can know other important and real historical characters, like the commandant Farrusco, the revolutionary Carlota or his partners of adventures, Artur and Carlos.

My favourite character is Kapuscinski, because he gives voice to the people that have lost it. His compromise with the cause makes me feel proud of him. In the middle of the war, in many times, he has the opportunity of leaving the country and coming back to the safety of his home. However, he prefers to stand there, because he takes his job like a life mission. The world needs to know what is happening there, where USA is providing weapons, money, soldiers and supplies to the enemy, that is against the people, who supports the MPLA.

Ricardo -Ryszard- takes a lot of risks to be in the front line to inform the world about what’s happening. He has fear, but the people’s future is more important to him than himself.

Finally, because I don’t want to do a lot of spoilers, I will describe a setting in the film that I especially liked. 

Kapuscinski is between the MPLA’s soldiers, so he has direct and real information from the front. The MPLA will start an operation with Cuban soldiers, but it has to be a secret or USA’s government will attack them. Ricardo has the scoop of his live with this information, and he has to decide between publishing it or keeping it in secret to save the operation and the future of Angola.

In the end, when the news agency insists to have information about if the Cuban government will take part in the conflict, renouncing to the scoop of his life, he keeps the secret and says: ‘’’no’’.

I recommend this film to know more about the conflict in Angola with the view of a polish reporter that existed in the real life.