Film archive, 2025

I Only Rest in the Storm

O Riso e a Faca

Director Pedro PINHO

1Festival entries

★Avg. rating

Sergio travels to Guinea-Bissau in West Africa to assess the feasibility of a road construction project connecting the desert with the jungle. There, he is met with endemic diseases and strange encounters. Amid people who either greet him with curiosity or regard him with suspicion as a ‘white European man,’ Sergio tries to find his footing—at times passive and naive—while adapting to the local environment. Two captivating individuals he meets along the way, Diara and Gui, challenge both his desires and sincerity. Diara, a local bar owner, and Gui, a nonbinary migrant from Brazil, form a curious triangle with Sergio, their entanglement charged with sexual tension. Their relationship reframes the grand narratives of neocolonialism—historical, political, and cultural—into something more intimate and personal. Selected for the 78th Cannes Un Certain Regard section, the film earned Cleo Diara the Best Actress award for her performance as Diara.