Natal 71

In 1971, the ‘National Women’s Movement’, aligned with the dictatorial regime, produced Christmas 71, a vinyl record intended to raise morale among Portuguese soldiers in Africa. The record serves as a pretext for looking back at the brutality of the colonial wars, using testimony from those who lived through them (including the director’s father). The insanity of the conflict — captured so well by the words of novelist António Lobo Antunes (read by Rogério Samora) and by the Cancioneiro do Niassa, an illicit cassette tape featuring politically charged songs — is contrasted with the futility of this musical project, which sought to smooth over the political context with an almost ingenuous message of comfort.