The focal point of Filipa César’s research is the influence of Amílcar Cabral on the cinematic culture of Guinea Bissau. For Cabral, who was assassinated in 1973, cinema played a key role in the 1961 to 1973 struggle for independence from Portuguese colonial rule.

Her latest research work, from 2011, traces the footsteps of the filmmakers Flora Gomes, Sana N'Hada, Josefina Crato and José Bolama Cobumba, all of whom were trained in Cuba at Cabral’s behest. At the same time, this journey turns into a quest for the history of this West African state, whose historical and film archives were almost completely destroyed in the 1998/1999 civil war. “The Embassy” condenses this experience into a cinematic encounter with one of the few surviving records of the country’s colonial past, a photo album from the 1940s and 1950s. The album is a photographic reflection of the colonial masters’ attitude to Guinea-Bissau. In Filipa César’s film, the album is commented on by the voice of an archivist who tells the history of his country as seen through his own eyes.


Curated by Alanna Lockward


Filipa César, who was born in the Portuguese city of Porto in 1975, has been living in Berlin since 2001. Her works have been shown at the 8th Istanbul Biennial (2003), the Kunsthalle Wien (2004), Tate Modern (2007) and the Manifesta 8 (2010), to name but a few.