HANAMI Discovery

Screening to be followed by a conversation with director and writer Denise Fernandes and actress Alice da Luz.

Dreams and reality are seamlessly interwoven to create a lyrical rumination on familial, geographical longing and belonging in this breakout debut feature by Denise Fernandes. On the volcanic island of Fogo, Cape Verde, with a landscape of black sand beaches and peculiar rock formations set against the active Pico do Fogo, the inquisitive young Nana is raised by her extended family, her mother having left soon after her birth. Sent to the base of the volcano for treatment after developing a high fever, Nana encounters a series of strange mentors in a fever dream that marks a turning point in her girlhood. As time passes, a teenage Nana must contend with an uncertain future in a changing Cape Verdean town where emigration looms large in everyone’s mind. Fernandes, herself hailing from the Cape Verdean diaspora, keenly crafts a personal meditation on the poetic contradictions between diaspora and homeland, between a mother who leaves and a daughter who stays. HANAMI earned the Best Emerging Director Award and special mention in the First Feature Competition at this year’s Locarno Film Festival. –Anna Li