Best review Njinga Queen of Angola (orig. Njinga Rainha de Angola) [2013] | loganbennett

IMDb listing

AdoroCinema.Com list*

Jornal Angolano de Letras e Artes (A. Quicunga) review*

C7nema.Net (R. Nunes) overview*

Diario de Noticias.Pt (R.P. Tendinha) evaluate*

Jornal Brasil Online assessment*

RaisNezaBoneza.No (R.N. Boneza) assessment

Njinga Queen of Angola (orig. Njinga Rainha de Angola) [2013] [IMDb] [AC]* (directed via S?Rgio Graciano [IMDb] [AC]* written by Joana Jorge [IMDb]) is an excellent, excessive fine (Portuguese language / proper here English subtitled) Angolan ancient epic set within the late 1500s-early 1600s in what is nowadays the Southwest African kingdom of Angola because the Portuguese, and most gallingly Portuguese slave buyers, started out out to increasingly more encroach on the traditional kingdoms of the location.

The movie executed nowadays as a part of the 2015 (13th annual) Chicago African Diaspora Film Festival prepared by way of ArtMattan and hosted thru Facets Multimedia in Chicago.

In the movie, Ngola (King) Kiluanje (done via ?Lvaro Miguel [IMDb]) of the then Southwest African usa of Ndongo [en.Wikip] [pt.Wikip]* the father of film's title individual Njinga Mbande [en.Wikip] [pt.Wikip]*(performed within the movie by way of the usage of former 2008 Miss Angola splendor queen Lesliana Pereira [pt.Wkip]*[IMDb] [AC]) is mortally wounded in war towards the Portuguese after refusing concessions, again clearly concerning the slave change, being imposed on him by way of them.

The question becomes who's going to succeed Ngola Kiluanje?  The logical successor would be his son Mbande (played by Jaime Joaquim [IMDb] [AC]).  Alternatively, there's his illegitimate son Njali (played by Miguel Hurst [IMDb] [AC]) and then there is Njinga, who, though a woman, many (elders and otherwise) in the court considered the most capable anyway.

What to do, and above all for the sake of the Kingdom?  Well, that's bulk of the film ...

Njinga proves to be a very adept / wise politician.  She remains in good terms with both of her brothers.  Further, she goes to and negotiates with the Portuguese a treaty on behalf of her brother.  Discovering that it would be to her and her kingdom's advantage if she became a Christian, she gets baptized, taking the Portuguese governor's wife as her Godmother and even taking on her Godmother's name, Ana de Soaza, as her Christian name.

After her brothers' deaths, she becomes Queen of Ndongo [en.wikip] [pt.wikip]* and even of a neighboring kingdom Matamba [en.wikip] [pt.wikip]*.  Then discovering that another European power, the Dutch, were also seeking to make inroads (at the expense of the Portuguese) in the region, SHE PLAYS THEM AGAINST EACH OTHER to her advantage, SUCCEEDING in acheiving FULL INDEPENDENCE of her two kingdoms from the Europeans (not having to pay tribute to either European power) during the remainder of her reign ;-).

Njinga's [en.wikip] [pt.wikip]* was truly a quite remarkable story, and I'm happy that today's Angola  made a very nice / high quality film to tell it.  Good job folks, good job!

* Foreign language webpages are most effortlessly translated the usage of Google's Chrome Browser.

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