Mortu nega

A soulful, bottom-up portrait of a country finding its postcolonial identity, Mortu nega follows the determined Diminga (Bia Gomes) as she journeys to the front lines in search of her soldier husband during the final days of Guinea-Bissau’s war for liberation from Portugal. After freedom is won, Diminga and her compatriots must maintain a steely resolve in the face of a host of daily challenges: accessing health care, navigating the state bureaucracy, and confronting a devastating drought. Directed with fierce commitment by Flora Gomes, a student of anticolonial leader Amílcar Cabral’s, Mortu nega offers a clarion call for strength and healing through unity.

Mortu nega was restored in 2025 by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and the Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata in collaboration with Flora Gomes. This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, an initiative created by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers, and UNESCO, in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna, to help locate, restore, and disseminate African cinema. Funding was provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. Special thanks to Arsenal–Institut für Film und Videokunst.